Future
Wall Street Prepares to Defend a Favored Tax Break, Again
President Trump called for ending the so-called carried interest loophole, which saves financiers billions. It’s a tax break that has survived time after time.
Investment firms successfully defended the carried interest tax exemption before. Can they do it again?Credit…Sarah Yenesel/EPA, via Shutterstock
We’ve got a whirlwind of news out of Washington — the carried interest tax exemption in the cross hairs, the latest on DOGE and an update on settlement talks between CBS and President Trump — but you should also pay attention to this news out of Washington State.
Amazon said it planned to spend $100 billion on capital expenditures this year, the “vast majority” of which was meant to capture a “once-in-a-lifetime type of business opportunity” in artificial intelligence. That level of spending eclipses what Google, Meta and Microsoft each have committed to spending on A.I. infrastructure.
It shows yet again that one of the key fears about the rise of DeepSeek — the Chinese start-up’s staggering efficiency — leading to a sharp drop in spending on pricey chips and data centers — was wrong. But are American tech giants making the right call here?
A new fight over carried interest
President Trump has outlined his tax priorities to Republican lawmakers. Among them was a surprise: the so-called carried interest “loophole.”
That could mean Wall Street will have to brace for a big fight to keep one of its most cherished tax breaks.
Carried interest was one of several items Trump mentioned yesterday, according to Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary. He reiterated ideas he promoted on the campaign trail, including ending taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security payouts, as well as expanding deductions for state and local taxes.
