Anthony Scaramucci wants to put off a tax bill that could reach millions of dollars on the pending sale of his stake in SkyBridge Capital, according to people familiar with the matter. But the incoming White House communications director might have a problem.
The sale was announced before he became a government employee, and that could make him ineligible for a tax break that’s designed to let investors serve in government without getting hit with massive tax penalties, experts say.
Scaramucci entered an agreement to sell the fund-of-hedge-funds firm in January, when he first announced he’d be joining President Donald Trump’s administration. But no government job materialized for months, and that may make the tax break null and void.
At issue is a federal law that allows new executive-branch employees to defer capital-gains taxes on assets they’re forced to sell to avoid conflicts of interest in their official roles. To qualify, a sale must be required by federal ethics officials after a review of the applicant’s finances. But because Scaramucci didn’t receive the January job, he couldn’t have been required to divest when he agreed to sell SkyBridge, some experts say.
“Even if the sale of SkyBridge Capital hasn’t closed yet, it would be hard to argue that the government forced him to enter into the deal to resolve conflicts of interest” in his planned new role as White House communications director, said Walter Shaub, the former director of the federal Office of Government Ethics, in a message posted to Twitter on Sunday. Shaub resigned earlier this month.
By tapping Scaramucci for a White House role, Trump capped a months-long saga that began before his inauguration. Scaramucci’s name surfaced in connection with two previous administration appointments, neither of which came to pass. He took a job last month as chief strategy officer at the Export-Import Bank of the United States, a post widely viewed as temporary.
Working to Divest
Scaramucci was offered a position with the Trump administration in January, and has been working with federal ethics officials since then to “ensure that he divests all identified assets that could pose a conflict of interest under all federal laws and regulations,” said his attorney, Elliot S. Berke of Berke Farah LLP.
Those officials will determine whether he’s entitled to defer taxes on his asset sales, Berke said in an email -- “not former officials or talking heads (or former officials who want to be talking heads).”
The White House press office, which is scheduled to begin reporting to Scaramucci on Aug. 15, provided an emailed statement: