Women received just £366m, or 6.8%, of the £5.4bn in carried interest and other profit-share awards paid to senior executives at private equity and hedge fund firms last year, according to analysis of HMRC data by business advisers and chartered accountants Lubbock Fine.
The figures highlight a significant gender disparity in the distribution of carried interest, with women accounting for 20% of recipients. Of the 3,890 individuals who received profit-share awards, 740 were women.
Despite representing one-fifth of recipients, women received an average payout of £495,000, compared with £1.6bn for men.
The overall value of carried interest awards increased sharply during the year, rising 52% from £3.5bn to £5.4bn.
The increase came ahead of changes to the taxation of carried interest, with the effective rate increasing from 28% to around 32% the following year.
David Portman, tax partner at Lubbock Fine, said some private equity and hedge fund managers may have brought forward the crystallisation of gains to lock in the lower tax rate.
However, he noted that accelerating gains can be more difficult when they are linked to the sale of a private equity-backed business, where the timing of an exit is dependent on a transaction taking place.
Senior executives at private equity and hedge fund firms paid approximately £1.5bn in tax on carried interest gains during the latest year, bringing the total tax contribution from carried interest to £5.7bn over the past five years.
Portman said the level of tax generated by carried interest demonstrates the financial contribution of the private equity and hedge fund industries to the UK Treasury.
The figures are based on HMRC’s latest Capital Gains Tax statistics, released on 27 August, 2026.
