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Tax Planning and the Exercise of Employee Stock Options

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  • STEVEN HUDDART

Abstract

This paper analyzes tax planning by holders of employee stock options and examines their response to a proposed tax rate increase. Consistent with tax planning, the frequency of exercise is greater for employees affected by the tax change than for (1) employees unlikely to be affected by the tax increase who contemporaneously held identical options, and (2) employees with comparable incomes who held similar options in other years. Despite the greater frequency of exercise, less than one†third of the option holders who would benefit most from exercise for tax reasons chose to exercise early.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Huddart, 1998. "Tax Planning and the Exercise of Employee Stock Options," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(2), pages 203-216, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:coacre:v:15:y:1998:i:2:p:203-216
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1911-3846.1998.tb00556.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Chip Heath & Steven Huddart & Mark Lang, 1999. "Psychological Factors and Stock Option Exercise," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(2), pages 601-627.
    2. Constantinides, George M., 1984. "Optimal stock trading with personal taxes : Implications for prices and the abnormal January returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 65-89, March.
    3. Barone-Adesi, Giovanni & Whaley, Robert E, 1987. "Efficient Analytic Approximation of American Option Values," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 42(2), pages 301-320, June.
    4. Huddart, Steven & Lang, Mark, 1996. "Employee stock option exercises an empirical analysis," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 5-43, February.
    5. Poterba, James M., 1987. "How burdensome are capital gains taxes?: Evidence from the United States," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 157-172, July.
    6. Huddart, Steven, 1994. "Employee stock options," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 207-231, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Seida, Jim A. & Wempe, William F., 2000. "Do capital gain tax rate increases affect individual investors' trading decisions?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 33-57, August.
    2. Steven Huddart & Ravi Jagannathan & Jane Saly, 1999. "Valuing the Reload Features of Executive Stock Options," NBER Working Papers 7020, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Paul André & M. Martin Boyer & Robert Gagné, 2002. "Do CEOs Exercise Their Stock Options Earlier than Other Executives?," CIRANO Working Papers 2002s-71, CIRANO.
    4. Poterba, James M., 2002. "Taxation, risk-taking, and household portfolio behavior," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 17, pages 1109-1171, Elsevier.

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