In the wake of the Financial Accounting Standard Board's decision to require firms that grant employee stock options (ESOs) to treat such options as an expense, many large and sophisticated firms are switching from ESOs to restricted stock. Restricted stock - stock granted to an employee as part...

This study examines the effect of allowing qualifying individual taxpayers that do not deduct any interest expenses on their tax returns (called quot;qualified saversquot;) to partially exclude their interest, dividend, and capital gain income, subject to a maximum exclusion. Meanwhile,...

This paper will explore the tax planning possibilities offered by pension income splitting. It is divided into seven sections: (1) the legislative framework;(2) the benefits of pension income splitting;(3) who can utilize these benefits;(4) how the optimal pension split amount can be...

Tax sparing occurs when a country with a worldwide tax system grants its citizens foreign tax credits for the taxes that they would have paid on income earned abroad, but that escapes taxation by virtue of foreign tax incentives. The supporters of tax sparing argue that it is a form of foreign...

Leveraged Employee Stock Ownership Plan (quot;ESOPquot;) transactions originated in the 1950s, yet there are still unresolved valuation issues that arise from a complex set of operating expenses, financing structures and contingent claims that are unique to leveraged ESOPs. Although complex,...

This paper analyses the possibility of double non-taxation of hybrid instruments in cross border transactions where the country of the investor has implemented the indirect credit method for mitigation or elimination of double taxation. From an isolated perspective a double non-taxation cannot...

The compartmentalisation of company finance into equity and debt does not truly capture the enormous diversity of financial instruments available. A wide variety of hybrid instruments incorporate elements of both equity and debt. From a fiscal point of view the classification of such hybrid...

The choice of corporate finance is an important source of tax planning opportunities for multinational companies. Investing companies have to be aware of inconsistent tax classification of equity and debt between countries in particular. Additionally, thin capitalization rules have to be taken...

The present study discloses the results of a survey on the ethics of tax evasion that was distributed to accounting, business and law students in New Zealand. Eighteen arguments that have historically been used to justify tax evasion were ranked in terms of relative strength. Analyses were done...