Ending [Carried Interest] Tax Break for Ultrawealthy May Not Take Act of Congress

...

"It's something that Obama could accomplish and, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure why the Treasury hasn't taken an interest in it," Mr. Fleischer said in an interview. "In fact, there is quite a bit of revenue at stake. And doing this on carried interest would cement Obama's legacy in substance as well as symbolically."

...

The provision has come under repeated political attack. During the current presidential campaign, all three remaining candidates -- Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump -- have called for eliminating it. A number of lawmakers tried to get rid of the carried interest tax benefit beginning in 2007; by 2010, it looked as if the special treatment would go by the boards.

But a lobbying campaign by the financial industry, supported by a number of influential Republican lawmakers who argued that carried interest should be ended only as part of a broader tax overhaul, put a stop to the effort.

...

"Hedge fund and private equity managers are really the one-tenth of the 1 percent, and the carried interest rule hits their pocketbooks directly," Mr. Wilensky said. "It's much easier to implement regulations that have an adverse effect on anonymous shareholders and institutions."

...

Financial officials in Britain have already started to trim beneficial treatment for carried interest. They have cut back on what qualifies for the lower, long-term tax rate.

Beyond fairness, there's another compelling reason for Mr. Obama to act on this inequity: It could generate $150 billion in revenue over 10 years, by Mr. Fleischer's estimate