Mnuchin won't comment on carried interest for private equity

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin was asked last night by Fox News' Tucker Carlson about why the White House tax principles did not include any mention of closing the carried interest loophole -- something that President Trump had mentioned regularly on the campaign trail.

Mnuchin replied that Trump remains committed to closing the loophole for hedge fund managers, but repeatedly avoided adding private equity fund managers into the mix:

Steve Mnuchin on the carried interest loophole for hedge funds: pic.twitter.com/R2sdt6YQE2 — Axios (@axios) April 27, 2017

Takeaway: Carried interest taxation may not matter if the White House gets Congressional approval for its plan to tax pass-through entities at 15%. In that case, changing carried interest taxation for hedge fund managers would be largely cosmetic. But it's hard to imagine Congress going along with a plan so ripe for abuse, so the real takeaway here is that hedge fund managers should be concerned about losing their loophole, but everyone else (private equity, venture capital, real estate, etc.) can sleep soundly.