Tag: IRC Section 162(m)

Assessing impact of major tax law change, if enacted, on financial statements on a timely basis would present huge challenge

The potential passage of the new tax bill is giving some finance departments conniptions, according to Bloomberg BNA, and they’re hoping that the SEC will address the problem.  The SEC?  Yes.  While companies are happy to see the tax breaks, some companies, especially large multinational companies, are anxious about whether they will be able to accurately determine the impact of the tax changes on their financial statements in time to file their annual and quarterly reports with the SEC. The obvious concern is that, if the SEC doesn’t extend the filing deadline, companies could risk making material misstatements. 

The end of Section 162(m)?

In case you missed it, according to this article in Bloomberg BNA, the new tax proposal would eliminate tax benefits under IRC Section 162(m), which allows companies to deduct executive compensation over $1 million (in addition to regularly deductible compensation up to $1 million) so long as it is performance-based and meets certain other conditions, such as shareholder approval and approval by a committee of “outside directors.”  According to the article, the proposal would retain the $1 million cap on deductible compensation but eliminate the exemption for performance-based pay that exceeded the cap.

How did corporate boards become afflicted with economic ADHD?

by Cydney Posner A lot has been written about the impact of short-termism on the US economy. (See, for example, this PubCo post, this PubCo post and this PubCo post)  This post from The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, “How Economic Attention Deficit Disorder Infected […]