Americans for Financial Reform

Government Category: Advocacy Documents

Letter to the Regulators: letter from 26 organizations to the Department of Labor urging reconsideration of guidance allowing retirement plans to invest in Private Equity

26 organizations, led by the Consumer Federation of America urge reconsideration of the DOL policy allowing defined contribution plans to invest in private equity funds. Issues raised to the DOL over its original letter considering allowing such funds into private equity include: It fails to give adequate consideration to the capacity of the typical plan sponsor,

Congressional Testimony: Testimony of Andrew Park on SPACs Before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship and Capital Markets

On May 24, 2021 at 12:00PM Eastern AFR’s Senior Policy Analyst Andrew Park testified before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Investor Protection, Entrepreneurship, and Capital Markets on Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs). Download the full written testimony here. Written Testimony before the House Financial Services Committee of Andrew Park Senior Policy Analyst Americans for

Letter to Regulators: Letter to the IRS and Treasury on Tackling Systemic Tax Abuses by the Private Equity Industry

The 18 organizations urge the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to prioritize rebuilding its auditing and enforcement capabilities in order to tackle systemic tax abuses, including in particular those by the private equity industry. The private equity industry has generated greater untaxed revenues over the past decades by structuring their funds to avoid taxes and through a strategy of misclassifying certain earnings, exploiting tax loopholes like carried interest, and utilizing complex and opaque business structures to shield earnings from IRS scrutiny. We applaud President Biden’s plans to fund the IRS and tax enforcement more robustly and believe that these needed changes are a strong argument for such additional resources.