C-Suite Compensation Center

This is a just a quick note that proposed Treasury regulations were issued under Section 162(m) that reverses a series of private letter rulings previously granted to UPREITs.  Under the proposed Treasury regulations, the $1mm deduction limitation under Section 162(m) would apply with respect to compensation that a publicly-traded REIT's covered employee receives from an operating partnership for services he or she provided on behalf of such operating partnership.  The proposed Treasury regulation is applied by potentially disallowing a REIT's distributive share of any ...

If an issuer is looking for a primer or introductory course on Employee Stock Purchase Plans ("ESPPs"), then check out the detailed slide deck that our David Branham put together for our monthly webinar series.  The slide deck is entitled Employee Stock Purchase Plans - The Introductory Course (November 2019 Webinar) and covers the following:

• Requirements under the tax law,
• Must have document requirements,
• Tax consequences to employees and to employers,
• Compliance requirements with respect to federal securities laws, and
• International workforce considerations.

The slide ...

It is common for a key employee to be offered an opportunity to purchase equity of the employer.  Often the key employee can personally finance such purchase.   And sometimes the employer will help the key employee finance the purchase by providing him or her with a loan equal to the purchase price.  The purpose of this Tip of the Week is to remind readers that a substantial part of the loan should be recourse.

• Risk Associated with 100% Non-Recourse Note - Key Employee Received an Option.   If the loan is 100% non-recourse (meaning the key employee has no personal assets at risk other than the ...

Did you exercise (or are planning to exercise) an incentive stock option (“ISO”) during calendar year 2018?  Do you intend to sell the underlying stock within the 12-month period from the date you exercised the ISO?  If you answered yes to both of the foregoing questions, then as part of your tax planning, consider whether the underlying stock should be sold during calendar year 2018 in order to minimize your alternative minimum tax (“AMT”) exposure.

If an employer grants one of its employees a restricted stock award, should that employee make an 83(b) election at the time the restricted stock award is granted?  What is the upside to the employee if he or she makes an 83(b) election?  What are the risks to the employee?  The answers to those questions are this “Tip of the Week.”

We previously posted on grandfather treatment under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the "Act"), as clarified by Notice 2018-68.  This post is an extension of our prior post and is intended to highlight that an issuer's PFO is subject to a slightly different analysis with respect to Grandfather Treatment (defined below).

The purpose of this post is to highlight certain action items that a publicly-traded company should consider in order to help it preserve compensatory deductions.  The timing of this post is triggered by Notice 2018-68 that was issued by the IRS on August 21, 2018.

Just a quick note.  Today the IRS issued guidance on Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 ("Section 162(m)"), as curtailed by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (i.e., the Act essentially eliminated the performance-based exception to the $1mm deduction limit under Section 162(m), except with respect to certain grandfathered plans).  The IRS guidance comes in the form of Notice 2018-68.  Later this week we will provide our thoughts on design considerations that should be considered by publicly-traded corporations intent on maximizing the ...