Employee Ownership Blog

The IRS has issued final regulations (T.D. 9088) governing the allocation of costs in developing intangibles related to stock options and other equity instruments in qualified cost sharing arrangements (QCSAs). QCSAs are procedures to allocate costs between U.S.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has delayed the date after which closely-held companies must implement new rules for showing a cost for mandatorily redeemable obligations, including equity instruments.

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) has postponed issuing standards for equity based compensation until the end of July 2004. It had been anticipated that a decision could be reached by the end of 2003. This will probably mean a similar delay in any final guidelines from the U.S.

The Cost Accounting Standards Board, part of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the Office of Management and Budget, has issued proposed regulations on how companies with ESOPs will be reimbursed in government contracts. The issue has been controversial for over two decades.

At its August 13 meeting, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) decided that stock-based compensation that is normally settled in cash, even if it nominally could be settled in shares, should be treated be treated as liabilities, following recent guidance from FASB under FAS 150.

In temporary and proposed regulations (Reg. 129709-03, T.D.

In temporary regulations issued July 9 (EE-96-85), the IRS has made it easier to comply with filing requirements under Section 1042 of the Code. That section allows certain sellers to qualified ESOPs to defer capital gains taxes on the sale by reinvesting in qualified replacement property (QRP).

There is still no firm consensus on just what the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) really means by its new FAS 150, an accounting protocol effective December 15, 2003 for closely held companies and June 15, 2003 for public companies.

Efforts to pass H.R. 1372 and S. 979 ("The Broad Based Stock Option Plan Transparency Act") appear to be faltering.

On July 8, Microsoft announced that it would replace its stock option grants with restricted stock. The company would continue to give stock awards to most employees; only the form of the award would change.

California's vast public employee and teacher retirement systems, CalPERS and CalSTRS, have agreed to a new options policy for their investments in the 1,000 largest public companies.

There is still no consensus on just what the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) really means by its new FAS 150, an accounting protocol effective May 2003 that requires companies to record a liability on their balance sheets for mandatorily redeemable obligations, including "puttable sto