3. OECD poised to publish guidance on taxation of share options

06 August 2004

According to a report in the Financial Times Deutschland, the OECD will next month release international guidelines for the taxation of share options.

The aim of the guidelines is to establish a framework for the resolution of conflicts between the tax authorities of different countries, the FT's sister paper reports.

Conflicts have arisen in the past as different countries have different tax laws governing the use of shore options. A common example is where a manager has moved between tax jurisdictions between receiving options and taking up the shares.

The OECD paper is said to advise that managers working in several countries should be taxed on their share options according to the pro rata working days spent in each.