Are you staying current with international developments that may impact your company’s equity compensation program? You will find many essential tools in the NASPP Global Stock Plans portal to keep up-to-date. If you haven’t browsed through the portal recently, you really need to check out our latest feature; the Stock Plan Compliance Evaluation tool.

The Stock Plan Compliance Evaluation tool is available only to NASPP members.  To access, click on the link that is under the Country Guides on the NASPP Global Stock Plans portal. This evaluation tool, provided by GlobalSharePlans, is a fantastic interactive tool that you can use to evaluate your international stock plans. By choosing your countries of interest, you can get an instant overview of the potential issues to be aware of. If you are seeking greater detail, head to the “Plan design by country” drop-down and run a personalized healthcheck on your plans by including applicable details. The Stock Plan Compliance Evaluation tool may be available this year only, so take advantage now!

We also continue to get regular updates to our Country Guides, Alerts, Articles, and Quarterly Updates. If you don’t already, sign up now to receive country alerts. You can subscribe to receive alerts for just the countries your company does business in, or all countries on the list! And, here’s a tip you may not be aware of:  you can search the archive for alerts on a particular topic, or find a summary of individual country alerts in each Country Guide link. Here is an alert that recently caught my eye:

Korea: The Korean government recently updated its position on the deductibility of employee stock options costs to a Korean subsidiary or branch. The Korean subsidiary or branch will now be able to deduct the costs associated with employee stock options issued by a foreign parent company as long as the subsidiary incurred the costs directly or through a recharge agreement. Because of this new position, when the Korean subsidiary or branch bares the cost of employee stock options, the employee’s stock option income will be subject to income tax and social security tax withholding. Additionally, the Korean government clarified that in many cases, the income assessed and subsequent tax withholding on income from stock options earned by mobile employees will be calculated pro-rata for the time spent in Korea.

Our Global Stock Plans portal Task Force Members regularly contribute in-depth articles and quarterly newsletters. Valerie Diamond and Barbara Klementz from Baker & McKenzie recently contributed the “Top 10 Things You Need to Know for Option Exchanges Involving International Employees”. A great reminder included in this valuable list is that there are countries where the employee and/or the local entity have had to pay taxes on the options at grant. Additionally, it is likely that neither the employee nor the local entity may be able to obtain a refund or tax credit and will owe taxes again at grant for the new option.

Don’t miss out on the latest developments; be sure to put a regular review of the NASPP Global Stock Plans portal on your schedule!