俄勒冈州民主党参议员罗恩·怀登呼吁特朗普政府高级官员遏制全球最大对冲基金之一AQR资本管理公司推广的某些减税投资策略的“指数级增长”。
Senator Ron Wyden called on senior Trump administration officials to halt the “exponential growth” of some tax-slashing investment strategies popularized by the world’s largest hedge fund, AQR Capital Management.
“我深感震惊，”怀登在致财政部长斯科特·贝森特和美国国税局局长弗兰克·比西尼亚诺的信中写道。“必须采取行动，维护联邦所得税制度的完整性，阻止富有的美国人将纳税义务视为可有可无。”
“I am alarmed,” the Oregon Democrat wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Internal Revenue Service chief Frank Bisignano. “Something must be done to protect the integrity of our federal income tax system and stop wealthy Americans from treating their tax bills as optional.”
AQR运营一系列所谓的税务敏感型长短股票策略，这些策略风险程度不一，可帮助投资者减少资本利得税。利用杠杆和衍生品的日益强效技术已呈爆发式增长。据估计，越来越多的资产管理公司现在提供自己的变体策略，仅在短短几年内就吸引了近2000亿美元资金。
AQR runs a spectrum of so-called tax-aware long-short equity strategies that, with varying degrees of risk, can help investors reduce taxes on capital gains. Increasingly potent techniques using leverage and derivatives have exploded in popularity. A growing number of money managers now offer their own variations, which by some estimates have attracted almost $200 billion within just a few years.
AQR代表未立即回应就怀登信函置评的请求。该公司此前表示，其调整策略是“为了在所有相关指导和法规范围内运作”。税务敏感型股票策略通常涉及对股票进行长仓和短仓押注，随后平掉亏损交易以锁定损失。这些损失可用于抵消其他持仓产生的收益税负。同时，盈利的股票押注继续作为未实现收益持有，推迟向国税局缴税，甚至可能无限期推迟。
Representatives for AQR didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment on Wyden’s letter. The firm has previously said it adapts strategies “to operate within all relevant guidance and regulations.”Tax-aware equity strategies typically involve placing long and short bets on stocks, then exiting trades that lose money to lock in losses. Those can be used to erase tax liabilities from gains on other holdings. Meanwhile, profitable stock bets continue running unrealized, putting off payments to the IRS, potentially indefinitely.
上个月，国税局官员公开警告称，他们打算发布指导意见并采取其他措施，遏制某些策略，包括一些旨在消除普通收入税负的策略。
Last month, IRS officials publicly warned that they intend to implement guidance and take other steps to curb certain strategies, including some that aim to eliminate taxes on ordinary income.
作为参议院财政委员会首席议员（少数党资深成员），怀登表示，该警告还不够。
Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said that warning doesn’t go far enough.
他指出，作为承担真实市场风险的一部分，卖出亏损投资以获取税收优惠并不构成滥用。
Selling a losing investment to get a tax break isn’t abusive when it’s part of taking true market risks, he noted.
但这位参议员写道，在“逃避任何严重亏损风险”的情况下制造亏损，“是一种以避税为目的的骗局”。“考虑到这种滥用税务架构已被广泛报道，且肯定已接近失控状态，我对您未能质疑这种活动感到失望。”
But manufacturing losses while “escaping any serious risk of loss is a tax-motivated sham,” the senator wrote. “I am disappointed that you failed to question this activity, given that this abusive tax structuring has been widely reported and is certainly approaching runaway-train status.”