A Swedish appeals court has ruled that carried interest should be treated by local tax authorities as ordinary income rather than as capital gains, in a reversal of a 2013 lower court decision.
This is similar to what may be proposed legislatively in the U.S., but with one huge difference: The Swedish decision could be retroactive for a full decade, meaning massive sticker shock for private equity investors on take-home pay that might have already been spent years ago. Plus, of course, a whole heap of uncertainty and wasted legal fees.