Congress Reviews Universities’ Hedge-Fund Investments

A Congressional committee, as part of its broad examination of the tax treatment of hedge funds and private-equity firms, this week held a closed-door meeting to discuss offshore hedge-fund investments by Harvard, Yale, and Stanford Universities, among others, reports Bloomberg News.

Senate Finance Committee staff members are looking for new sources of tax revenue. Universities do not currently owe tax on most investment earnings, but they are required to pay tax on earnings from debt-financed investing. Hedge funds use companies in places like the Cayman Islands to convert profits into nontaxable dividends, a technique the Senate committee says is employed by many universities.

Spokesmen for Harvard and Yale declined to comment, and a spokesman for Stanford told Bloomberg the university “probably” uses intermediary companies in some cases.