Mitt Romney flubs understanding of the VC tax
Mitt Romney, a leading Republican presidential candidate, was a founder of Bain Capital, a private equity firm. So you’d think he’d understand the basics of the VC tax legislation being fiercely debated in Washington. But in an interview with TechCrunch, he shows he doesn’t understand it.
When asked what he thought of the VC tax proposal he says:
“…with regard to carried interest associated with venture capital, real estate, private equity, I do not believe in raising… Continue Reading
VC tax dies in Senate, but lives in UK
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) has reportedly told venture capital and private equity firms that the carried interest tax-hike bill won’t get get through the Senate this year.
Venture capitalists and private equity mangers deserve to be paying the higher rates, because they’re not taking any risks with the investments they’re making. The tax they’re paying now is the very low capital gains rate, and is paid on profits they’re making from investing other… Continue Reading
President Bush not supporting VC-Private Equity tax
President Bush said he is against making venture capital and private equity firms pay income tax of 35 percent on their “carried” profits.
We wrote about why VCs and other investment professionals should be paying the higher tax than the 25 percent capital gains rate they currently pay — namely, they are already getting capital gains privileges on the personal money they are risking on these ventures.
We don’t entirely understand Bush’s logic on the matter, because his… Continue Reading
Why VCs should pay the higher tax — and an example
Here’s why we think venture capitalists and other investment professionals should pay income tax rates on “carried” profits, as proposed by legislation in Washington.
The lower capital gains tax rate of 15 percent, which VCs are now paying, is meant to encourage people to take risks, to investment money long-term with a business in hopes of generating superior profits. Encouraging such risks is good for all of us, because it fuels economic expansion and job… Continue Reading
Kate Mitchell goes to Washington, to defend VCs from new tax
The Congressional debate about a new tax (see our coverage) on investors kicks off tomorrow (Wednesday) with U.S. Senate hearings.
Venture capitalists are represented by Kate Mitchell (pictured here), a managing director at San Francisco’s Scale Venture Partner. Mitchell called us from Washington, to explain what she’ll tell the U.S. Senate, and then later at the U.S. House of Rep. in a briefing: That VCs like her have invested substantial amount of their personal savings into… Continue Reading
VC tax continued — differing views
Private Equity Week’s Dan Primack has a good follow-up on the debate about the new tax for venture capitalists and other investors.
A public backlash against these investors is encouraging politicians: The extravagant ways of Blackstone, the buyout firm that that just went public and where leaders were feasting on $300 stone crabs, haven’t helped. The tax proposal is gathering momentum.
And while most investors are upset about the tax, New York venture capitalist Fred Wilson (pictured… Continue Reading
Democrats formally propose higher tax on VCs, others
U.S. Congressman Sandy Levin (D-Michigan) has finally introduced the bill that venture capitalists were dreading: A higher tax on their profits.
If it passes, and there’s a possibility it may, it will change the tax treatment of “carried interest,” or profit that VCs and other investment professionals get from their investments. The change would tax that profit at a much higher rate — by treating it as ordinary income, rather than as capital gains, which draws… Continue Reading
Robert Rubin latest to favor the VC-private equity tax
Robert E. Rubin, the former Treasury secretary in President Bill Clinton’s administration and now Citigroup exec, has come out in favor of the private equity tax.
“It seems to me what is happening is people are performing a service, managing peoples’ money in a private equity form, and fees for that service would ordinarily be thought of as ordinary income,” Mr. Rubin was cited saying by the NYT. He said he he was not a tax… Continue Reading
The dirt on Amazon, Steve Jobs, Topix, Fatdoor, MySpace, VC tax and more
Here’s the latest action:
Amazon’s odd and scary patent — First, Amazon rolled out a product called Mechancial Turk (image left), where people do tasks for you that a machine couldn’t perform. Strange name, we thought, but nicely couched in history, and the people still ruled. But the latest Amazon patent puts the machine in charge, breaking down tasks, and commanding the human to do them. According to the patent, just awarded, “the humans perform the subtasks… Continue Reading