Jesse Drucker and Danny Hakim: Private Inequity: How a Powerful Industry Conquered the Tax System (June 12, 2021)

Jesse Drucker and Danny Hakim, of the New York Times, have made available for download their article, “Private Inequity: How a Powerful Industry Conquered the Tax System”, published in the New York Times. The abstract is as follows:

There were two weeks left in the Trump administration when the Treasury Department handed down a set of rules governing an obscure corner of the tax code.

Overseen by a senior Treasury official whose previous job involved helping the wealthy avoid taxes, the new regulations represented a major victory for private equity firms. They ensured that executives in the $4.5 trillion industry, whose leaders often measure their yearly pay in eight or nine figures, could avoid paying hundreds of millions in taxes.

The rules were approved on Jan. 5, the day before the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Hardly anyone noticed.

The Trump administration’s farewell gift to the buyout industry was part of a pattern that has spanned Republican and Democratic presidencies and Congresses: Private equity has conquered the American tax system.

Click here to view Jesse Drucker and Danny Hakim’s summary of “Private Inequity: How a Powerful Industry Conquered the Tax System”

Posted by Marin Larkin, Associate Editor, Wealth Strategies Journal.