H.R. 5648

Stop Wall Street Looting Act

This bill generally revises provisions related to the regulation of private equity funds. Among other things, the bill

• increases financial and legal liability for these funds in the event of certain violations of law,
• gives employee compensation higher priority in bankruptcies, and
• generally prohibits the payment of dividends for two years from an acquired asset firm to a private equity fund.

The bill modifies the tax treatment of carried interest—compensation that is typically received by a partner of a private equity fund and is based on a share of the fund's profits. (Under current law, carried interest is taxed as investment income rather than at ordinary income tax rates.) Among other things, the bill treats as ordinary income the net capital gain with respect to a private equity fund.