Fehlklassifizierung von Carried Interest führt zu Steuernachzahlungen und Strafen

Definition

ATO guidance for Venture Capital Limited Partnerships (VCLPs) explicitly states that a GP’s entitlement to carried interest is taxed as a capital gain and is distinct from any management or similar fee, which remains ordinary income.[4] At the same time, Australian tax firms flag that the central question in private equity is whether carried interest is capital gains (potentially eligible for the 50% CGT discount) or ordinary income taxed at full marginal rates.[5] When legal documents, internal models, and tax filings mismatch (for example, booking a performance-based fee as carry or vice versa, or applying the CGT discount where the 12‑month condition is not met), ATO audits can reclassify the flows, triggering additional income tax, denial of CGT discounts, interest, and administrative penalties. For a typical fund where carry is 20% and management fees are around 2% of committed capital,[3] misclassification on multi‑million‑dollar profit pools easily creates six‑figure exposures per fund. Because calculations are often done in spreadsheets and manually mapped to tax categories, the risk compounds across years, vintages, and partners.

Why This Matters

The Pitch: Venture Capital and Private Equity players in Australia 🇦🇺 risk AUD 100k–500k per fund cycle in back taxes, penalties, and advisory clean‑up costs from misclassifying carried interest versus management fees. Automation of carried interest/fee calculation, tagging, and tax treatment eliminates this risk.

Affected Stakeholders

General Partners (GPs), Fund CFOs, Head of Tax / Tax Managers, Fund Administrators, External Tax Advisors

Related Business Risks