Last week, I was at the ABA Tax Section meeting in Chicago.  During one of the partnership panels, Clifford Warren, Special Counsel to the Associate Chief Counsel (Passthroughs and Special Industries) at the IRS, was posed several questions about the new management fee waiver proposed regulations.  Mr. Warren agreed with the panelists that carried interests are fine under the proposed regulations, at least with respect to investment funds.  This is good news, although the good news may not last long as President Obama and many politicians (including a few presidential candidates) call for doing away with the preferential tax treatment for carried interests.

It should be noted that Mr. Warren’s comments had the standard disclaimer for IRS officials speaking on panels, which was that he was speaking in his individual capacity and not for the IRS.