Offshore hedge funds look for tax benefit - WSJ

NEW YORK, April 16 (Reuters) - Offshore hedge funds, looking to benefit from possibly buying delinquent loans and subsequently selling them at a profit, are seeking tax exemption on such gains, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Earlier in April, tax advisers for many hedge funds met top officers at the U.S. Treasury Department and asked them to exclude the funds from U.S. taxes on such profits, the Journal reported, citing a person present at the meeting.

Offshore hedge funds have had an increasingly big role in so-called loan syndication deals in recent years and have usually paid no federal income taxes on profits from these pools, the Journal report said.

But critics have said offshore hedge funds are getting an unfair tax break, since they play an increasingly active role in the lending business, according to the report.

Representatives for the Treasury Department were not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Aarthi Sivaraman; Editing by David Holmes)