Leon Black Supports Change To Carried Interest Tax
The WSJ's Dennis Berman just finished interviewing Apollo Management boss Leon Black, as the closing keynote to Dow Jones' PEA Outlook Conference. Lots of talk about distressed debt and private equity's recent record, but the most notable exchange was Black's view of carried interest tax treatment. Berman asked Black to imagine he was called to testify in front of a Congressional committee. How would he succinctly argue in support of keeping carried interest taxed as capital gains? "I'm not sure I would," Black replied. "It wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to have some adjustment... I don't think it should be ordinary income, but maybe something in between." No other private equity investor of Black's stature has ever said such a thing publicly (Jon Moulton and Leo Hindery are not of Black's stature). Berman didn't
