减税法案后美国合伙制企业的转型趋势——对黑石等合伙制企业转型公司制的税务分析

Transformation Trends of Partnerships in USA after the 2017 Tax Act:An Analysis on the Transformation of Blackstone and Other Partnerships

从税法的角度分析,合伙制企业作为穿透实体,与公司制企业较易区分。然而,随着合伙制企业法的发展,公开交易的合伙制企业也可以集中管理、相对自由和公开地转让股份、享受公司制企业的待遇,这些特征使其和一家公司制企业几乎完全一致。因此,经营者仍然坚持选择合伙制企业的重要原因之一是享受较低的税负。2017年美国《减税与就业法案》的出台大幅度降低了公司制企业的税收负担,在很大程度上减少了公司制企业与合伙制企业之间的税负差。在这样的背景下,美国投资界的巨头黑石与KKR,先后转型为公司制企业。本文重点分析此类企业转型背后的税务原因,进而对合伙制企业的税收政策进行思考。

From the tax law perspective,partnership as a pass-through entity,is easier to distinguish from a corporation.However,with the development of partnership law,publicly traded partnerships can also enjoy the benefits of centralized management,freely transferable shares and limited liability,which make them almost identical to a C corporation.Therefore,one of the important reasons why entrepreneurs still choose a partnership is to enjoy a lower tax burden.The introduction of the US Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 not only significantly reduced the tax burden on C corporations,but also greatly reduced tax differences between C corporations and partnerships.In this context,the US investment giants Blackstone and KKR have successively transformed into C corporations.The paper focuses on the tax reasons behind such transformation and the analysis on the tax policy of partnerships.