Blackstone's Schwarzman: Trump tax overhaul a welcome boost
Blackstone Group (NYSE:BX) co-founder and CEO Stephen Schwarzman said President Trump’s tax reform is a welcome boost for the U.S. economy.
In an interview with Maria Bartiromo on FOX Business’ “Mornings with Maria,” he cited the reduction in the corporate rate to 21% from 35%, the enhanced ability of companies to deduct equipment expenses and the potential repatriation of $2 trillion in earnings from abroad.
“That all adds up to something pretty good,” Schwarzman said from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We are going to be seeing unanticipated foreign investment in the United States because we are going to be the best developed market in the world. ”
Disagreeing with assertions that private-equity firms and hedge funds were untouched by the overhaul, Schwarzman cited a change limiting the carried-interest tax break to gains on assets held for at least three years.
“If you have any capital gains within that three-year window, it’s treated as ordinary income,” he said. “This affects pretty much every hedge fund. It also affects firms like ourselves when we sell something within three years.”
Almost 25% of private-equity deals in the U.S. since 2000 would have lost preferential tax status under the overhaul, Bloomberg reported in December, citing PitchBook Data Inc., a financial data and software company.