Friday, March 11, 2016

CLOSING THE LOOPHOLE

Barack Obama, during his first Presidential campaign, pledged to reform the tax on carried interest and, in 2012, went after Mitt Romney for having enjoyed its benefits as the co-founder of Bain Capital. This year, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Donald Trump have all attacked the loophole, often using hedge-fund managers as the rhetorical target. As Trump put it in August [2015], ‘They’re paying nothing, and it’s ridiculous. . . . These are guys that shift paper around and they get lucky.’ Jeb Bush, who made a foray into private equity in 2014, also called for closing the loophole during his ill-fated campaign.”


Alec MacGillis, “The Billionaires’ Loophole,” New Yorker, March 14, 2016, pp: 64-73.