Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2003. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains x, 104 p.; also includes graphics (some col.). Includes bibliographical references. Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Sheridan Titman. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

One way a multinational corporation can further satisfy its primary objective, which is to maximize shareholder wealth, is to minimize the share of its income that is transferred through taxation to the various sovereign nations within which it does business. The profit maximizing firm attempts to maximize (minimize) taxable income in those jurisdictions where income tax burdens are the least (most) in such a way as to diminish the present value of its global total tax burden. While the US corporate income tax rate has remained relatively stable over the decades since most US income tax rates were last slashed as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, across the rest of the world, non-US corporate income tax rates have continued to fall. Even though the US statutory rate was among the lowest corporate income tax rates of any industrialized nation in 1988, by 2008, due to continuing rate decreases around the globe the US rate had become one of the highest corporate income tax rates amongst the G-8. In April of 2012, the US statutory rate as applied to corporate income became the highest among all the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD) countries. This study will examine the behavior of option intensive corporations during the late 1990's. Coinciding with the longest recorded economic expansion in the history of the United States and coupled with the so-called "internet bubble" during the second half of the decade, this period of rapid stock price appreciation was also a time when many highly profitable companies faced substantially lower current US tax liabilities due to the large tax deductions resulting from the employee exercise of increasing quantities of non-qualified stock options at substantial gains. Enormous tax losses reported by employee stock option granting firms were sufficient to eliminate not only current US corporate income tax liabilities but also several years of future tax liabilities for some firms. Previous research has documented an increasing proportion of US multinational corporate income recognized in foreign jurisdictions, thereby escaping the relatively high US corporate tax rates until the foreign profits are repatriated back into the US. Perhaps US corporate income tax rates are so high in comparison to equally suitable substitute foreign locations that many firms have relocated their income producing activities to lower taxed jurisdictions abroad. Or it may be that US multinational firms engage in various cross border income shifting techniques to avoid high US corporate income tax rates and reduce their overall global tax burden. Profitable option intensive firms in the late 1990's faced in effect lower US corporate income tax rates due to their extensive employee stock option deductions and resulting net operating loss carry-forwards. It is possible that these firms had more incentive to recognize income domestically than their non-option intensive corporate peers. Using a sample of the largest US firms comprising the NASDAQ-100 index on May 31, 2001, this study found evidence of higher US profitability among NASDAQ-100 multinational firms with the largest deductions resulting from the exercise of options by their employees during the 1997 - 2000 fiscal years suggesting that these firms where more likely to recognize or even generate income within US borders when facing effectively lower US corporate income tax rates. Such an observation has potential public policy implications and contributes to the literature on tax motivated income shifting behavior.

This master's thesis is dealing with the topic of employee stock options (ESOs), primarily with the valuation of ESOs in accordance with the accounting standard IFRS 2 at corresponding fair value basis. The goal of this thesis is a critical analysis of the standard mentioned, with respect to the conditions of the Czech Republic. The theoretical part comes with the basic characteristics of employee stock options and explains how the traditional option-valuation models can be modified for the purpose of ESOs valuation. It is also concerned with discussion about fundamental features of the fair value basis necessary for the valuation process. The essential part of this thesis is the critical analysis focusing on the rationality of accounting methods, disclosure requirements and also on a theoretically correct determination of model inputs. Critical analysis is followed by case study aimed on evaluation of an authentic option plan. The practical part also demonstrates advanced methods of valuation using the Black-Scholes and the binominal models as well as the Monte Carlo simulation. In the conclusion, I present proposals for changes of the IFRS 2. According to the results of the critical analysis, supported by case study, greatest shortcomings were identified in the disclosure requirements. Proposals for changes are aimed mainly on this problem.

M.Comm. / In the case of share purchase schemes, the employer assists the employee to buy shares through a trust. If the interest on the loan is at a rate lower than the standard rate for tax purposes, the employee will be taxed on the difference between the standard and actual rate charged. An alternative for buying ordinary shares is to buy convertible preference shares in the Company. A scheme involving convertible debentures has the same basic principles as convertible preference shares, but the South African Revenue Services might use section 8A of the Act as it seems as if only a right to ordinary shares is offered to the employee. If the company does not have the means to administrate any of the schemes summarised above, they can make use of a phantom share scheme. With this scheme there is no actual buying or selling of shares, but "bonuses" are calculated with reference to the movement in the share price. These incentives are treated as normal bonuses for tax purposes in the hands of the employer and employee. To provide the employees with a tax effective scheme is just as important as providing a share incentive scheme. Companies, therefore, have to consider all the schemes available and the tax implications before implementing a share incentive scheme.

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Thesis (Ph. D. in Management)--Vanderbilt University, Dec. 2005. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Employee share options and Black Economic Empowerment deals are financial instruments found in the South African market. Employee share options (ESOs) are issued as a form of non-cash compensation to the employees of the company in addition to their salaries or bonuses. Its value is linked to the share price and since there is no downside risk for the employee his share option is similar to owning a call option on the stock of his employer. Black economic empowerment (BEE) deals in this report refer to those types of transactions structured by listed South African companies to facilitate the transfer of a portion of their ordinary issued share capital to South African individuals or groups who qualify under the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Act of 2003 (“the Act”). This Act requires a minimum percentage of the company to be black-owned in order to address the disproportionate distribution of wealth amongst racial groups in South Africa due to the legacy of Apartheid. These transactions are usually structured in such a way to allow the BEE partner to participate in the upside of the share price beyond a certain level but not in the downside which replicates a call option on the share price of the issuing company. The cost of both ESOs and BEE deals has to be accounted for on the balance sheet of the issuing company at its fair-value. Neither of these instruments can be traded and their extended option lifetimes are features that distinguish these deals significantly from regular traded options for which liquid markets exist. This makes pricing them a non-trivial exercise. A number of types of mathematical models have been developed to take the unique structure features into account to price them as accurately as possible. Research by Huddart&Lang (1995&1996) has shown that option holders often exercise their vested options long before the maturity of the transactions but are unable to quantify a measure that can be used. The wide variety of factors influencing option holders (recent stock price movements, market-to-strike ratio, proximity of vesting dates, time to maturity, share price volatility and wealth of option holder) as well as little exercise data publicly available prevents the options from being priced in a consistent manner. Various assumptions regarding the exercise behaviour of option holders are used that are not based on empirical observations even though the option prices are sensitive to this input. This dissertation provides an overview of the models, inputs and exercise behaviour assumptions that are recognized in pricing both ESOs and BEE deals under IFRS 2 in South Africa. This puts the reader in a position to evaluate all pricing aspects of these deals. Furthermore, their structuring are also analysed in order to identify the general issues related to them. A number of methods to manage the pricing issue surrounding exercise behaviour on ESOs have been considered for the South African market. The ESO Upper Bound-methodology showed that for each strike there is a threshold at which exercise will occur and the employee can invest the after-tax proceeds in a diversified portfolio with a higher expected return than that of the single equity option. This approach reduces the standard Black-Scholes option value without relying on assumptions about the employee’s exercise behaviour and is a viable alternative for the South African market. The derived option value represents the cost of the option. Seven large listed companies’ BEE transactions are dissected and compared against one another using the fair-value of the transaction as a percentage of the market capitalization of the company. The author shows how this measure is a more equitable way of assigning BEE credits to companies than the current practice which is shareholding-based. The current approach does not reward the effort (read cost) that a company has undertaken to transfer shares to black South Africans but only focuses on the amount that is finally owned by the BEE participants. This leaves the transaction vulnerable to a volatile share price and leads to transactions with extended lock-in periods that do not provide much economic benefit to the BEE participants for many years. Other inefficiencies in the type of BEE transactions that have emerged in reaction to the BEE codes that have been published by the South African government are also considered. Finally the funding model that is often used to facilitate these deals is assessed and the risks involved for the funder (bank) is reflected on. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Mathematics and Applied Mathematics / unrestricted

本研究以2002年至2007年曾發行員工認股權之國內上市(櫃)公司為研究樣本，首先從公司特性及股權結構之觀點，分析公司選擇發行員工認股權之決定性因素。此外，本研究進一步以績效調整後之盈餘管理幅度為應變數，從員工認股權佔總獎酬之重要程度，探討員工認股權、公司治理特性與盈餘管理之關聯性。 實證結果顯示，在公司發行員工認股權之決定性因素方面，公司成長機會、人力資源貢獻度、員工股票分紅比率與公司發行員工認股權之可能性呈顯著正向關係，而自由現金流量、股權結構綜合指標則與公司發行員工認股權之可能性呈顯著負向關係。在探討員工認股權、公司治理特性與盈餘管之關聯性方面，員工認股權佔總獎酬之比例與盈餘管理幅度呈顯著正向關係，而公司治理特性綜合指標則與盈餘管理幅度呈顯著負向關係。 / Based on a sample of Taiwanese companies has been issued employee stock option listed in Taiwan Securities Exchange over the period of 2002-2007. First, this thesis analyses the determinant of the company issued employee stock options of the company characteristics and ownership structure. Second, uses the performance matched discretionary accruals and the employee stock option of the total compensation to explore the impacts of employee stock options and corporate governance characteristics on the earnings management. The empirical results show that in the determinant of the company issued employee stock options, the company's growth opportunities, the contribution of human resources, employee stock bonus to total bonus and the possibility of issued employee stock options was a significant positive relationship, and free cash flow, ownership structure composite indicator the possibility of issued employee stock options was a significant negative to the relationship. In the impacts of employee stock options and corporate governance characteristics on the earnings management, the employee stock option of total compensation and earnings management was a significant positive relationship. The corporate governance and earnings management was a significant negative relationship.