July 19, 2011
The Buck Stops Here
Today we feature another guest blog entry, this time from Marlene Zobayan of Rutlen Associates, who will present on the panel “The Buck Stops Here (Unless, of Course, It Stops Somewhere Else)” at the 19th Annual NASPP Conference in November. The panel will use a case-study approach to define an effective strategy for addressing the taxation of globally mobile employees. Marlene’s co-panelists are Jim McBride of AST Equity Plan Solutions, Kate Forsyth of Deloitte, and Kimberly Kovacs of OptionEase.
The Buck Stops Here (Unless, of Course, It Stops Somewhere Else)
by Marlene Zobayan, Rutlen Associates
These days, no discussion on the taxation of equity compensation seems complete without addressing the topic of mobile employees. For any one company, the numbers of mobile employees are usually small compared to the entire workforce, yet the administrative work caused by this small group of employees far exceed those of the fixed population.
The difficulties fall into three categories:
- There is the administration burden of identifying and tracking who the mobile employees are.
- Then there is calculating the correct taxes to apply. Of course, jurisdictions differ widely on what they determine to be their taxable portion resulting in a complicated tax calculation for each set of facts.
- Finally there is the difficulty of getting the payroll and administration systems to administer what has been calculated, especially where the amount of income being taxed does not sum to 100%.
For the more advanced company, the impact of mobile employees carries through to the corporate tax deductions, which impacts deferred tax assets and ultimately the accounting expense of the equity compensation.
Although the technologies supporting these categories have come a long way, often manual intervention is still required to make sure the systems properly handle mobile employees.
To demonstrate these issues, the panel will focus on three specific examples of mobile employees who all receive similar equity grants. The examples follow common real-life mobility patterns, if there is such a thing. The audience will see how a mobile employee’s circumstances impact the taxation, employer withholding and reporting compliance, accounting, expense allocation and corporate deduction based on the countries involved and the type of mobility, e.g., whether someone is a temporary assignee, permanent transfer or a business traveler.
Don’t miss Marlene’s session, “The Buck Stops Here (Unless, of Course, It Stops Somewhere Else),” at the NASPP Conference.