Employer reporting obligations relating to French-qualified awards For French-qualified1 stock options or BSPCEs2 exercised in 2024 and French-qualified RSU vested in 2024, the French employer must prepare an individual statement with the exercise / vesting data to be provided to the beneficiary no later than March 1, 2025.This individual statement has to be used by the beneficiary to report their taxable income in their French annual income tax return due in May / June 2025…
For an update on this development, see our July 15, 2020 post here. The IRS has issued a General Legal Advice Memorandum (GLAM 2020-004) that could increase the audit risk and exposure for late deposit penalties for companies granting stock-settled restricted stock units (âRSUsâ) and either (i) not making their next-day employment tax withholding deposits with the IRS within one day of when they request their transfer agent to transfer shares underlying the RSU award…
On December 7th, the IRS issued Notice 2018-97 to provide initial guidance on the new private company income inclusion deferral regime enacted under Code Section 83(i) as part of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (âSection 83(i)â). Under the deferral regime, eligible employees of eligible privately-held companies may elect to defer payment of federal income taxes due on exercise of stock options or settlement of restricted stock units (âRSUsâ) for up to five years…
As most employers are aware, the obligation to report non-qualified deferred compensation (NQDC) that complies with Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 409A is currently suspended, but non-compliant NQDC is required to be reported in Box 12 of an employeeâs Form W-2. Employers should also be aware of the additional Form W-2 reporting requirements that may apply to NQDC, including equity awards that are considered NQDC, such as deferred restricted stock units: the obligation to report…
As I had discussed back in January 2015, changes to the moribund French-qualified RSU regime had been proposed by the French Government which would have made granting French-qualified RSU awards again much more beneficial to both the company and the employees. Alas, the wheels in France turn slowly and we are still waiting for the law to be adopted.
What has happened in the meantime is as follows:
The French Parliament actually adopted the proposed law at the end of February 2015. The law was then sent to the French Senate for further debate. Unfortunately, at the Senate level, the law was amended and the reduced vesting/holding periods now only apply to so-called SMEs. These are small and medium size companies which employ fewer than 250 persons and which have an annual turnover not exceeding ⏠50 million, and/or an annual balance sheet total not exceeding ⏠43 million.