By Anthony J. Tuths, JD, LLM, Partner,
[email protected] TAX PLANNING FOR THE ALTERNATIVE FUND MANAGER Being an advisor to the alternative investment industry allows me to observe recurring issues that leaders take into account, such as governmental regulation, investor preferences and idiosyncratic asset problems. There is a constant issue which fund managers are always eager to discuss, and that is the taxation of their own compensation. Within the asset management arena there are several strategies OFF-SHORE REINSURANCE COMPANY that managers employ to limit their global tax burden. In this Many large U.S. based fund managers have created off-shore article I will briefly describe several accepted methods managers reinsurance companies, converting ordinary income into long can employ to legally reduce their U.S. tax costs including: term capital gain in order to gain a tax rate advantage. In order to achieve this, the fund manager will work in tandem with a non-U.S. 1. Affirmatively using the PFIC rules partner, typically a reinsurance company. The non-U.S. party owns 2. Off-shore reinsurance companies a portion of the reinsurance company to ensure it is not treated as 3. Private placement life insurance a controlled foreign corporation (a “CFC”) for U.S. tax purposes. 4. Expatriation The new reinsurance company then begins writing reinsurance policies and collecting premiums. The initial share capital of the AFFIRMATIVE USE OF PFIC RULES company plus the insurance premiums collected are invested into U.S. investors, including U.S taxable fund managers, in alternative the manager’s fund(s). The fact that the company takes on real investment funds, almost universally, invest into a U.S.