Employee shares and options: when does tax arise and who deals with it? (webinar summary)

A Slovak employee receives share options from a foreign parent company. Who taxes this benefit, when, and at what rate? The answer is not always as straightforward as it seems, and mistakes are often made in practice. In our webinar, we showed how to navigate this.

What was covered in the webinar on employee shares and options

Our speaker, Jana Kyselová, Director | Tax Advisor, walked participants through the following topics:

• why employee share and option plans are becoming increasingly popular,
• the main types of programs – shares, options, RSUs and ESPPs – and their life cycle,
• tax and payroll contribution aspects: what to watch out for,
• the international dimension of employee plans,
• the most common mistakes we see in practice,
• what an employer should check before introducing a program.

Why this matters

A benefit in the form of shares or options is income for the employee that may be subject to tax and social and health insurance contributions, and the related obligations may fall on the employer. If the payroll department does not learn about the benefit in time, it may process it in the wrong period or incorrectly. For programs run by a foreign head office this is even harder: the Slovak company often does not see the grant or the exercise, yet the obligations may remain with it.

We can help you assess the taxation of employee benefits and set up the payroll process as part of our services: Taxation of individuals and assessment of employee benefit taxation, Payroll processing and HR administration and Global Mobility Services.

Download the presentation

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