Skittish markets and a furious lobbying effort have stalled Sen. Charles Grassley’s plan to boost taxes for publicly-traded private equity firms.
“I think there’s a caveat now that I wouldn’t have talked about six months ago,” the Iowa Republican said on Wednesday at the Reuters Regulation Summit in Washington D.C. “(Given) how the economy has deteriorated, right now maybe we don’t want to make Wall Street more nervous.”
“The lobbying effort killed it. They’ve been very successful,” Grassley added.
Still in play for Grassley: Closing a loophole allowing some highly paid executives who operate offshore investment funds to defer unlimited amounts of pay.
Democrats Sen. John Kerry and Rep. Rahm Emanuel proposed legislation in October to make some such pay taxable.
“That’s closing a loophole, that’s not raising taxes,” Grassley said.
Click here for more from the Reuters Regulation Summit.
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