"offset profits" is a correct phrase in written English and it can be used to refer to profits that have been reduced or eliminated because of an expense or cost incurred.
For example: The company was able to offset profits by reducing unnecessary costs.
Like all businesses, banks can use past losses to offset profits, reducing their corporation-tax bills.
(To generate equity, developers sell the tax credits to corporations seeking to offset profits).
The shelters involved arranging trading losses that offset profits from investments in other companies.
They can be used to offset profits this year -- if mutual funds are fortunate enough to have any.
Its discount carrier, Jetstar, made a $116m loss after losses from its Asian operations offset profits from its Australian division.
The charges and a loss from the home-health business will more than offset profits from other businesses.
C1 G.E. Earnings Rise 25% General Electric managed to offset profit declines in many units with several one-time gains to earn $4.09 billion, or 41 cents a share, in the third quarter, nearly a 25percentt increase.
The huge earnings hit also calls into question whether Citigroup's vaunted diversified banking model — which Mr. Prince inherited from his predecessor and mentor, Sanford I. Weill — can actually offset profit disruptions in one area with gains in another when unexpected financial crises emerge.
Sony 's earnings plunged 26% for the latest quarter as expenses for job cuts and other restructuring costs and lower profits from its electronics, moviemaking and video games business offset profit improvement in its music business.
Fiat Auto lost 394 million euros in the period, offsetting profits at almost every other division except for insurance.
But after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, "the banks were focused on their long-term liquidity," rather than on offsetting profits, said another income-restricted housing expert, Michael Novogradac, the managing partner in the San Francisco office of Novogradac & Company.
