Forum Topics WZR WZR General Discussion
Maaxweell
Added 4 years ago

@Noddy74 - just having a look at your straw regarding the director loans for Wisr.

Employee share schemes are a messy part of the tax system, I haven't dealt with it too much in my time, so I won't pretend to be an expert. The short answer is if you don't meet the criteria for certain concessions, the discount you receive becomes assessable income in the year the shares or rights are received. This is where you end up with liability without even selling (I know a few guys who have this issue, and it is a huge hassle cashflow wise, some have to sell newly vested shares every quarter just to be able to fund the quarterly tax instalments).

They have to charge interest to avoid FBT (and probably Div7A) issues, so it is at least 'commercial', but as far as capital allocation goes I hate it. Companies have much better things to spend money on than covering employee tax bills. Have not looked into Wisr before but if it wasn't baked in to their initial employment contracts, I would be annoyed as a shareholder if they just decided to grant them this loan now.

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Noddy74
Added 4 years ago

Thanks @Maaxweell I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on the mechanism that makes the option assessable. I'm a qualified beancounter but more of the management accounting variety than statutory - and tax accounting is a whole different beast again.

I agree that it's not a good look for them, particularly when they've yet to prove the viability of the underlying business itself. If they need a loan put in place an employee scheme that is available to all. Make it whatever rate their credit system determines less 150 bps (or something).

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