Private Equity Strategies

Regs Watch: Brief Updates on Changes in Regulation for Private Equity

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A s journalists like me and lawyers have written ad nauseum, new and ever more regulations are in the pipeline for private equity and alternatives as a whole. Here we will hit on some of the cases of note and provide links to new guidance over the past month.

Sweden Doubles Carried Interest Tax:

According to a report in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Sweden will double its taxes on carried interest, a move that will make the country more costly for private equity firms and cut its tax favorability overall.

China Leaves Private Equity Out of New Investment Law Revisions:

Chinese regulators have left private equity and venture capital funds out of revisions to their investment and securities laws coming into effect in June of this year. According to, Wu Xiaoling, vice-chairman of the National People's Congress' financial and economic affairs committee, differences among regulators in terms of how to monitor private equity will need to be worked out before the government opts to regulate funds.

SEC Provides Guidance For Private Fund Managers And Compliance Officers:

Exams and increased monitoring are on tap for private equity funds within the US as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeks to more closely monitor private equity funds and other alternative investments. In a recent speech Bruce Karpati, chief of the SEC's Asset Management Enforcement Unit, offered guidance on what firms can expect.

IRS Releases Final Rules on FATCA:

Long-awaited final rules for implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) have been released by the IRS. These rules provide guidance for how funds taxes will now be treated both in the US and in foreign countries if a firm is based in the US. These rules will have far reaching implications for alternative investment companies including hedge funds and private equity.

Final Version of AIFMD, Largely Positive For Private Equity Funds:

Private equity firms that will be affected by the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive in the EU are welcoming the final draft rules released near the end of December, which are more lenient on private equity than previously expected.

This article was published in Opalesque's Private Equity Strategies our monthly research update on the global private equity landscape including all sectors and market caps.