Author: Marianne O'Bara
Marianne works regularly with numerous non-U.S. companies and their local counsel to ensure that their compensation and benefit arrangements covering U.S. taxpayers comply with U.S. tax and employee benefit laws. She assists U.S. and non-U.S. companies in the design, formation, administration, merger and termination of employee benefit plans, including equity incentive plans, bonus and long term incentive arrangements, deferred compensation plans, and employment and separation agreements. Marianne is a Partner in Dorsey’s Benefits and Compensation practice group and past Chair of the firm’s Executive Compensation Practice Group.
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A Canadian company adopting a deferred share unit plan (DSU plan) for its directors must consider U.S. tax implications for U.S. taxpayers. It is important to remember that U.S. citizens and U.S. residents for tax purposes (including green card holders) are taxed on worldwide income, regardless of where they reside. As such, participation by a...
We have written about this in the past [here], but the message bears repeating each year. It is easy to overlook that employment agreements, change-in-control agreements, and severance agreements with U.S. taxpayers frequently contain provisions that subject them to U.S. Internal Revenue Code Section 409A (“Section 409A”), and failure to comply can result in onerous tax...
While the recently enacted U.S. tax reform legislation did not overhaul executive compensation to the extent proposed in early forms of the bill, Section 162(m) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code was dramatically revised in a way that affects Canadian companies that file reports with the SEC and that employ, or may in the future...
A Canadian company (the employer) historically has not issued equity-based awards to employees of its U.S. subsidiaries, but it now is considering doing so. Past posts have addressed potential U.S. income tax pitfalls and the need for careful review of the plan and award agreements prior to the grant of restricted stock units (RSUs) and...
Recently we blogged about pitfalls and potential adverse tax consequences for U.S. taxpayers with respect to deferred share unit awards that pay out following the participant’s termination of services. Read that blog entry here. But what about restricted share units (RSUs) that are subject to vesting based on continued service and that are settled/paid out...
A Canadian company is planning to adopt a deferred share unit plan (DSU plan) for its directors. Only one or two of its directors are U.S. citizens or U.S. residents (“U.S. Directors”). With only one or two U.S. Directors, you wonder whether it is important to consider U.S. tax implications. The answer is a resounding...