Democrat Suggests Ending Break On Romney 'Investment Income' To Provide For Middle-Class Tax Relief

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January 20, 2012

Van Hollen Wants to End Hedge-Fund Break to Fund Tax Cut

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, said Congress should eliminate a tax break for private-equity and hedge-fund executives to pay for extending a payroll tax cut for workers.

“It’s an inequity in the tax code, and it needs to be fixed,” Van Hollen, of Maryland, said on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” airing this weekend.

“If you look at a lot of the hedge fund activities, these are people who are not putting their own capital at risk,” he said. “They are getting a special deal that is not available to other people in the economy.”

Mitt Romney, Republican front-runner and co-founder of Boston private-equity firm Bain Capital LLC, probably has benefited from a break that allows private-equity executives to receive much of their compensation as carried interest -- treating what would be ordinary income for other service providers as capital gains, taxed at 15 percent. Ordinary income currently is taxed at rates as high as 35 percent.


read more: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-01-20/van-hollen-wants-to-end-hedge-fund-break-to-fund-tax-cut.html

related:

Romney's Tax Disclosures Provide Perfect Foil for President's Proposals for Tax Fairness
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002183860

[FreakinDJ]

1. I can think of 1/2 Dozen Tax Breaks (Loopholes) that need to be changed Immediately

Tax Breaks that Outsource American Jobs is at the Top of the List

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6. I remember our conversation

'Tax Breaks that Outsource American Jobs' at the top of your list.

I remember that I associated that change in tax policy with Ronald Reagan when I was following issues in the '80's. He had gotten the tax on money going out of the country lifted, I believe.

[FreakinDJ]

7. Only for Corporations - Individuals taking money out of the country is TAXED

Lets say you wanted to retire in Costa Rica and take your money with you - You would pay Capitol Gains on that money

But Corporations are allowed to transfer $Billions out of the country and "Right Off" the cost

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8. right

corporations

[Progressive dog]

11. Corporations are People

How is it that corporations are people when it benefits them but different when it benefits them?

[yardwork]

12. Agreed, but this is a good start.

We have the political window of opportunity to repeal the Mitt Romney tax break right now, and I hope that the Democrats do it.

[Old and In the Way]

2. Call it the Mitt Tax Adjustment Act of 2012.

And thank Mitt for bringing it to our attention!

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4. perfect

. . . after all, his tax plan should be named, the 'Romney Aggrandizement Act of 2013)

[LonePirate]

3. The carried interest rules should have been purged from the 2010 tax deal.

The sooner this welfare for millionaires is removed from the tax code, the better.

[bigtree]

5. President Obama echoed that sentiment

as he advocated for student loan relief.

“How can we ask a student to pay more for college before we ask hedge fund managers to stop paying taxes at a lower rate than their secretaries,? he asked."

More to the point, the President's proposed in his jobs bill to raise $18 billion by taxing the 'carried interest', or profits-based compensation of private equity managers (like Romney), real estate investors and venture capitalists as ordinary income, instead of regarding it as capital gains; effectively subjecting their income to the cap of 35% that other higher wage earners pay right now.

[Dont call me Shirley]

10. And by lifting the cap on SS payments.

[Scurrilous]

9. K & R