Tips for Employers in Light of New Data Matching Program

Source: KMPG  KPMG in Australia reports on the recent release of details on a "data matching" program, which allows the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to acquire temporary working visa data from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC). The program allows the ATO to obtain temporary working visa data from DIAC for visas granted in the period July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2014. One of the key objectives for the ATO in obtaining this data is to improve intelligence concerning the overall level of tax compliance by employer sponsors and the temporary working visa holders. 

When is a Stock Option Not a Stock Option?

Source: HR Reporter  Employers commonly structure incentive plans for key, or all, employees based on the employer's stock, equity or shares. This is a common way for employers to motivate staff, by giving them a more or less direct stake in the company's financial success. However, such plans don't always involve the actual granting of stock options or the issuance of shares to employees.

AREVA : Group Employee Share Purchase Plan

Source: 4-Traders  The objective of this offering is to strengthen the AREVA Group's existing relationship with its employees by offering them the possibility of becoming more closely associated with the Group's objectives, development and results. This employee offering will cover three countries in which the AREVA Group is present, representing approximately 86% of the Group's employees. 

ESOP Trusts - For Employees Only

Source: Hindu Business Line  Some listed companies have employee welfare/ Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) schemes, which are operated through a trust. Though the trust is set up to provide employee benefits, there is apprehension that a few may use the trust to deal in their own securities, with the object of inflating, depressing, maintaining or causing fluctuation in the share price. This results in regulatory concerns and can be viewed as insider trading/ unfair trade practice.

MORE 

PIC Deserves Its Praise for Outing Pay Committees

Source: Business Report   Full marks to the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) for taking its role as a responsible investor seriously and telling the emperors on all those remuneration committees that they are wearing no clothes.  The PIC, which manages R1 trillion on behalf of the Government Employees' Pension Fund, has just updated its record of voting at annual general meetings.

MORE 

Consideration Received for the Surrender of a Right to Acquire Shares Under Section 8c 

Source: DLA Cliffe  The South African Revenue Service (SARS) issued Binding Private Ruling 147 (ruling) on 14 May 2013. It deals with the tax treatment of compensation received by an employee for the surrender of a right to acquire shares under s8C of the Income Tax Act, No 58 of 1962 (Act).

MORE 

Form 42 Submission: July 6, 2013 

Source: Deloitte.  HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) require companies to report any employee-related stock or stock option transactions that have taken place during the UK tax year (April 6-April 5) and may fall into the UK income tax net. The relevant information must be reported on a "Form 42," which must be submitted by July 6 following the end of the UK tax year. Penalties can arise if companies fail to meet this obligation. A wide range of employee related stock transactions should be included on the form.

Are Stock Options and Performance Shares Really the Same?

Source: Porter Wright   So argues the Wall Street Journal, in an article that appeared yesterday:  Steven Kaplan, a finance professor at the University of Chicago's Booth Graduate School of Business, likes stock options as executive compensation in most cases. But he finds it odd that ISS classifies performance-based shares differently than stock options, since the two forms of equity can deliver the same returns and offer the same incentives.