Bryan Corbett, who leads the Managed Funds Association, which represents hedge funds, says tax preferences for long-term investment are necessary to help the post-pandemic recovery.
“An unintended consequence of this proposal is that partnerships would be treated differently from any other business in the economy, punishing entrepreneurs upon the sale of their business, built over the course of decades, by not affording them the benefit of long-term capital gains treatment,” he said in a statement.
Not all tax advisers are worried. Jerry Musi, who counsels private equity firms in his role at accounting firm RSM US, says the House proposal is a “little slap on the wrist.” He said he’s advising clients to hold on to investments longer and looking at ways to gift carried interest to lower-taxed individuals.
Definition Issue
Yet investment holding periods have become shorter, rather than longer, over time, according to Alex Anderson, a partner at law firm O’Melveny & Myers. He said he’s seeing far more private equity sales after holding portfolio companies for about 3 1/2 to four years. That’s down from the roughly six years that had been considered the rule of thumb for average hold times, he said.
What Congress means by “substantially all” of the assets that need to be invested could also have a big effect on how quickly investment funds could qualify for lower tax breaks. The term “substantially all” appears many times in the tax code, but it is defined in regulations to mean anything from 30% to 90%, depending on the specific area of the tax code, said Marc Schultz, a partner at Snell & Wilmer.
The House could vote as soon as next week on the legislation, which would then need to pass the Senate. Restricting the carried-interest provision is politically important to many Democrats, despite only being estimated to raise $14 billion in the context of a $3.5 trillion bill.
On the Senate side, Wyden has favored outright elimination of carried interest, as well as restrictions on other tax preferences for fund managers. Democrats are aiming to pass a final bill out of Congress this fall, with weeks or months more of negotiations still to come.
“We are responsibly funding these policies by simply asking those who are doing extremely well to pay just a bit more, so that all members of the American family can live with dignity and stability,” House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal said in a statement last week.
--With assistance from Sabrina Willmer.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.