On October 7, 2019, TEI submitted comments to the Department of Finance Canada concerning the income tax legislative proposals on employee stock options that were released for public consultation on June 17, 2019. If enacted, these proposals would fundamentally alter the Canadian tax treatment of employee stock options—for employees and employers alike—and impose new tax reporting and compliance requirements on many Canadian businesses. TEI’s comments addressed significant competitiveness and efficiency concerns raised by the proposed changes and provided some recommendations for mitigating them.
TEI’s comments were jointly prepared under the aegis of the Institute’s Canadian Income Tax Committee, whose chair is Kurtis L. Bond. Watson M. McLeish, tax counsel for the Institute, coordinated the preparation of TEI’s comments.