Today I am really looking attending the NASPP’s Silicon Valley Chapter All-Day in Santa Clara. If you are joining us, be sure and say hello to me! If you are missing out on the action today, don’t let your opportunity for the 19th Annual NASPP Conference early bird rates also slip through your fingers. Tomorrow is your last chance to get in on the special discount on registration.
Six Years of Savings
San Francisco did end up approving short-term relief from city tax on equity compensation through December 2017. But, there are a couple catches. First, the exemption from the city’s 1.5% payroll expense tax on stock options only applies to companies immediately following an IPO. Second, the relief only kicks in after the $750,000 in taxes has been paid. According to this article from the San Francisco Examiner, only a dozen or so companies are poised to actually be impacted by this tax break. Still, there is talk about what changes to city taxes might be proposed for the 2012 ballot. So, for now, public companies in San Francisco must still pay the payroll expense tax on equity compensation–unless they are eligible for other payroll tax exemptions.
You Can Run, but You Can’t Hide
Speaking of paying taxes, I also caught this article from CFO.com. We’ve been hearing that both the IRS and states are and will continue to focus on taxes due on equity compensation. This article indicates that states may be looking specifically at domestically mobile employees and several will soon be enacting legislation to provide specific formulas for calculating the portion of income deemed to be earned in-state.
This is both good news and bad news. Obviously, there is the administrative burden of achieving compliance with respect to mobile employees. If states are taking a closer look at the sourcing of income from equity compensation, companies need to be moving faster toward full compliance. The good news is that one of the hurdles to achieving real compliance is defining exactly what compliance means in certain jurisdictions and it looks like more states will be making that clear. The problem does still remain, however, that states are not legislating the same formula–an issue also present in global mobility compliance. Our expert panelists covered all the complexities of domestic mobility in the recent NASPP webcast, State Mobility: Don’t Be Grounded by Your Mobile Employees. If you weren’t able to join in the live webcast, the transcript and materials are both available for review.
If you follow the NASPP on Twitter or Facebook, then you already know when and where the NASPP’s 19th Annual Conference will be held!
As you know, the window for submitting speaking proposals for the Conference is open and I’m already excited. People are getting really creative this year and I can’t wait to see what will get chosen! Don’t worry if you’re still working through the details of your submissions; we won’t start the difficult selection process until after the window closes on February 28th. Also remember that one is never enough. Each company can submit up to three proposals–hedge your bets and make sure your company maxes out the limit. (Remember to communicate with your other departments so you don’t accidently go over three.)
Around this time of year, I get emails from NASPP members wanting to get the inside scoop on what presentation topics are most likely to get chosen. Honestly, the inside scoop is that there is no inside scoop. Our proposal submission site has a wealth of suggestions that will help you get on the list of speakers for the Conference this year. However, these are my personal top three tips:
Tip #1: Fly Low
Regardless of your topic, we like to see presentations that will give us specific practical guidance and in-depth coverage of relevant areas. Case studies make fantastic illustrations, especially if your panel includes more than one company with different experiences on the same issue.
Tip #2: Diversify
It works for investing and it works for a phenomenal presentation. If you want to cover a topic thoroughly, get at it from multiple viewpoints. We are particularly fond of panels that include more than one firm because of the different perspectives that can be offered. We also specifically give preference to submissions that include an issuer company (or two).
Tip #3: Turn Up the Heat
It goes without saying, but I’ll do it anyway. The NASPP loves hot topics! We want our Conference attendees to get exactly what they are looking for. We have a great list on our proposal submission site, but it’s by no means exhaustive. Don’t be shy about perusing the NASPP Discussion Forum to see what issues are buzzing there or polling your peers to find out what they are struggling with right now.
There are, however, some subtleties about the selection process. Many topics are so in demand that we receive multiple submissions with different ideas for covering them. Every year, we do see equally irresistible proposals for an essential topic. There are a few tiny things that could give you that special edge: have clever title, provide detailed topic points, and include a description of what additional materials you’ll be providing. Be flexible, too, because sometimes we may ask you to join forces with another panel to create a hybrid that offers the best of both.
Also, don’t be afraid of a topic that isn’t shiny and new. Some topics like plan administration or tax withholding and reporting never go out of fashion because they never cease to be a major focus for equity compensation professionals. If you have an innovative approach to an old challenge, we want to know!
Proposal Assistance Program
It’s cutting it close, but it’s still not too late to qualify for the Proposal Assistance Program for this year’s Conference. If you are planning on exhibiting this year, reserve your booths now and you can participate in this invaluable program before the proposal submission window closes on February 28th. Through this program, you’ll receive personal feedback on how to improve your speaking proposals for the Conference, giving you a clear edge over your competition.
I’m blogging live from the “18th Annual NASPP Conference” in Chicago, which is a phenomenal success, with a full line-up of the best and the brightest speakers in the industry and close to 2,000 attendees. Today is the first day of the Conference, so I thought I would share some scenes from the pre-Conference programs and last night’s opening reception with my readers.
The Conference started off this morning with a keynote presentation featuring a lively panel on executive compensation. The panelists included well-respected directors Brad Anderson, Vice Chair and Former CEO of Best Buy and Bob Denham, Former CEO of Salomon, Director of Chevron Corp. and Partner of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, along with John Olson of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Jesse Brill, Chair of the NASPP and CompensationStandards.com. One theme that emerged from the panel is the idea of CEOs forgoing compensation that is excessive or inappropriate or so that additional compensation, such as stock, can be delivered to employees.
Scenes from the 18th Annual NASPP Conference With over 40 sessions, the Conference will be chock full of practical guidance, best practices, and critical updates. Here are a few pictures so you can see all the excitement. (Click each thumbnail to see a full-size version of the picture.)
There are a lot of people here this year–as you can see by the packed exhibit hall during the opening reception.
Feats of acrobatic prowess were performed in Computershare’s booth in the exhibit hall–I’m referring to actual acrobatics, in addition, of course, to their flexible and innovative solutions for stock plan management that were also on display.
The Morgan Stanley Smith Barney booth is in the center of all the excitement and a popular stop for reception attendees.
Baker & McKenzie featured an unique giveaway in their Conference booth–sure to be of assistance in managing global stock compensation.
Don’t Miss Out–Audio Available If you aren’t able to attend the Conference or are here in Chicago but can’t get to all the sessions you’d like (with over 40, who could?), you can download the audio from any and all sessions in MP3 format. Purchase just the sessions you want or save by purchasing a package of sessions.
NASPP “To Do” List We have so much going on here at the NASPP that it can be hard to keep track of it all, so I keep an ongoing “to do” list for you here in my blog.
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! Our program for the 18th Annual NASPP Conference has been finalized and was posted yesterday. With so many fantastic proposals to choose from in our selection process this year, I know that you’ll be as excited as I am to see which workshops have made it to our final offering!
One of the special perks of being Editorial Director here at the NASPP is that the Conference workshops remain a total mystery to me until the final vetted program is ready to be announced. It’s like having a big birthday present sitting in front of me waiting to be opened! Once I get my hands on the line-up, though, I do have to start my own selection process. Even though I know that I’ll be able to catch the audio of any workshop I miss, it’s still such a struggle to decide which presentations I will have the pleasure of attending live. So, today I’d like to let you in on the top five workshops that I’m looking forward to this September.
This double session is a one-two punch on mobility. Because employee mobility is an increasingly visible issue that many companies are still struggling to reach an acceptable level of compliance in, it’s one of my favorite topics.
The first half of this double session is all about state-to-state mobility. This is an important issue that I think a lot of companies still haven’t faced. I’m especially interested in digging into recent legislative updates impacting multijurisdictional tax considerations and the details that will be provided by the panelists on legislation for the largest states. What really are the trends and best practices for state-to-state mobility? Come to this workshop with me and find out!
The second half of this double session dissects operational compliance for tax withholding and reporting obligations in the U.S. for globally mobile employees. The truly exciting facet of this workshop is that it really does have the inside scoop on preparing for an IRS audit–one of the panelists is the IRS executive who is leading the enforcement action on this specific issue. It doesn’t get much better than this!
This workshop exemplifies what makes the NASPP Conference so essential. What better way to stay on top of the hottest issues in equity compensation? These three panelists have their work cut out for them because this workshop will be adjusted to encompass any late-breaking developments that stock plan professionals will need to be in touch with! Not only will they cover today’s top issues, they’ll also provide specific recommendations on language companies can include in plan or grant documents to address them.
I’m always excited to learn more about cutting-edge equity compensation strategies! This workshop will walk us through practical guidance on implementing and administering some truly creative stock plan programs. The panelists will also delve into the strategic motivation behind moving to these equity vehicles and why traditional equity awards may not be serving their intended purpose.
The recent focus on executive compensation coupled with the new disclosure requirements intensifies the importance of understanding the process of drafting proxy statements. The panelists will provide a detailed review of the equity compensation items and potential disclosures that stock plan professions should be aware of. This is a workshop that I expect to walk away from with some really valuable materials!
Truth be told, I’m a real fan of Excel spreadsheets. The more I know about Excel, the more I realize I’m barely scratching the surface of its potential. Unfortunately, relying on manual manipulation of spreadsheets for crucial calculations also carries with it a heavy potential for costly and embarrassing errors. This workshop will walk us through the top alternatives though relevant scenarios that we can all relate to. These panelists will be tackling some solutions that go beyond the basics, including using Crystal Reports, Microsoft Access, and even spreadsheet macros.
Registration and Workshop Selection
If you haven’t already done so, don’t wait a moment longer to register for this year’s Conference. Now that our agenda is out, workshop selection is automatically incorporated into the registration process. For those of you who are already signed up for our power-packed offering, read over the Workshop Descriptions and let us know which workshops you plan on attending by completing this online form. This is a critical part of our planning because it makes it possible for us to accommodate seating in our most popular workshops!
