Quite why private equity billionaires pay lower rates of tax than their cleaning ladies do on their wages has long been a puzzle. In private, few in the industry bother to defend the tax treatment of carried interest, the generally 20 per cent of profits made after an 8 per cent hurdle rate, as capital gains rather than income. Sure, there is a good public policy case to be made for allowing the proceeds of venture capital investments to be taxed as capital gains. Business creation benefits from the existence of angel and early stage investors. But the bloated buy-out barons, particularly the leveraged flippers of existing businesses, need no special favours.
長久以來，私人股本億萬富翁的稅率為什么比清潔女工繳納的稅率還要低，這一直是個謎。私下里，對于在征稅時將附帶權益(carried interest)當作資本利得而不是收入對待，私人股本業內人士都懶得為其辯護。附帶權益通常為扣除8%最低投資回報率以后利潤的20%。當然，從公共政策角度可以有力論證，將風險投資收益按資本利得征稅是合理的。業務的創辦受益于天使投資者和早期投資者的存在。但自負的收購大亨，特別是來回利用現有企業做杠桿的那些人，并不應該享受特殊優惠。