Boston.com – Donovan Slack (“Tax break favors the high-fliers,’’ Dec. 29) and Steven Syre (“A plan worth loving,’’ Dec. 31) have written excellent pieces in the Business section on the unusually low tax rate (15 percent) paid by hedge fund managers and venture capitalists on what are in fact success-based contingent fees. As with contingent-fee lawyers, this amounts to a percentage of what they win for their clients.
There is an important distinction between these two types of money managers. The venture capitalists succeed when they bring a new business to market: creating products and jobs, as more than a half century of new business success here and in Silicon Valley demonstrates.