Latest BDO Canada Weekly Tax Tip Reminds Shareholders to Exercise their Tax Relief Election on Stock Option Profits - Video News Alert on Investmentpitch.com

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - December 2, 2014) - Stock options have been used for decades by companies to offer their employees financial incentives in lieu of higher salaries. Benefits from a stock option are generally included in the individual’s employment income in the year the option is exercised.

InvestmentPitch.com has produced a “video news alert” which provides a brief overview of the special tax relief available and the steps shareholders must take to protect themselves before it expires at the end of 2014. If this link is not enabled, please visit www.InvestmentPitch.com and enter “stock options” in the search box.

If you cannot view the video above, please visit:
http://www.investmentpitch.com/video/0_710sd52z/BDO-Reminds-Shareholders-to-Exercise-their-Tax-Relief-Election-on-Stock-Options

Prior to March 2010, employees of a publicly-traded company could elect to defer the recognition of the employment benefit arising from the exercise of employee stock options until the shares were sold. The amount of tax owing was fixed in value, just the payment of the tax was deferred.

This was great in theory, assuming the stock maintained its value so that when the person sold the stock the proceeds generated enough income to pay the tax liability, and hopefully leave some profit for the employee. However, as we know, in the real world stocks often go down in value. In many cases, employees continued to hold the depressed securities, rather than selling them and facing the tax liability.

The Canadian 2010 federal budget provided shareholders special relief, allowing them to elect to pay a tax equal to the proceeds of the disposition of the securities, instead of the tax that was previously payable.

The latest BDO Canada Weekly Tax Tip reminded us that this option will only apply to shares disposed of prior to 2015.

About InvestmentPitch

InvestmentPitch.com, a multimedia company that provides a combined solution for creating and hosting financial video content, and distributing it across multiple platforms to investors and financial professionals, specializes in producing short three minute videos based on significant news releases and research reports.

CONTACT:
InvestmentPitch.com
Barry Morgan, CFO
bmorgan@investmentpitch.com