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.
长久以来，私人股本亿万富翁的税率为什么比清洁女工缴纳的税率还要低，这一直是个谜。私下里，对于在征税时将附带权益(carried interest)当作资本利得而不是收入对待，私人股本业内人士都懒得为其辩护。附带权益通常为扣除8%最低投资回报率以后利润的20%。当然，从公共政策角度可以有力论证，将风险投资收益按资本利得征税是合理的。业务的创办受益于天使投资者和早期投资者的存在。但自负的收购大亨，特别是来回利用现有企业做杠杆的那些人，并不应该享受特殊优惠。