Finland Moving Quickly on Employee Ownership

According to Erkki Helaniemi of Alexander Corporate Financing in Finland, 127 Finnish companies now offer stock options to most or all employees. Employees are taxed on the options only upon exercise, when they pay ordinary income tax rates. The company, however, does not get a tax deduction. Until recently, Swedish law taxed options on grant, but that was changed last year and Swedish companies are now starting to move to grant broad-based options. There is also an effort underway in Finland to allow profit sharing plans to invest primarily in company stock.