Executive Stock Options: Should the IRS and Stockholders Be Given Different Information?

The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held a hearing entitled, “Executive Stock Options: Should the IRS and Stockholders Be Given Different Information?” examining the role of stock options in executive compensation; the incidence of stock option abuses; how stock option compensation is reported to stockholders under generally accepted accounting principles versus how the same compensation is reported to the IRS under federal tax rules; the origins, nature, and extent of the resulting book-tax difference; and the policy reasons for continuing or ending the stock option book-tax difference.