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The Internal Revenue Service has published new regulations to shield workers who unwittingly received backdated stock options from getting hit by a huge tax liability—but companies must act fast if they want to protect their employees via the new program. Known as the Compliance Resolution Program and unveiled by the IRS on Feb. 8, the […]

Companies struggling with their proxy statements under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new rules for disclosing executive and director compensation, take note: The SEC staff has issued 18 pages of guidance in the form of frequently asked questions you will want to review. The FAQs are divided into “Questions and Answers of General Applicability” and […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s voluntary “e-proxy” rules are being lauded for their potentially huge cost-savings and for bringing proxy dissemination into the 21st century. But they won’t mean the end of paper proxies—at least not this year. Rules adopted in December and posted to the SEC’s Web site last week allow companies to furnish […]

Companies that had their 2007 proxy disclosures well in hand as they rang in the new year need to think again, thanks to a last-minute change to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s executive compensation disclosure rules that rewrites how companies should value and disclose equity compensation. Released late on Dec. 22—just before much of Corporate […]

The Securities and Exchange Commission this week is taking the first step toward new rules to overhaul the disclosures companies must make about what they pay their top executives and directors. The SEC will meet to today to propose amendments to the disclosure requirements for executive and director compensation, related party transactions, director independence and […]

As expected, last week The Financial Accounting Standards Board delivered its final statement on share-based payments, bringing stock options and other forms of equity-based compensation out of the footnotes and onto the balance sheet. The Board’s statement, officially dubbed Statement No. 123: Share-Based Payment, requires companies to begin expensing equity-based awards in the first annual […]

Proxies appear poised to join the ranks of all things “e,” making the process of preparing for an annual meeting cheaper, faster and easier for companies in the near future. At a Nov. 29 open meeting, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted to put out for public comment rules that would allow issuers to put […]

Companies looking to tap the capital markets have reason to rejoice. The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved changes to the Securities Act that should make that process faster, easier and less expensive. The reforms mark major changes to regulations dating back to the 1930s; The Securities Act of 1933 was the first federal law […]