Publicly traded companies have long been concerned with Internal Revenue Code Section 162(m) in order to maximize the deductibility of compensation paid to certain covered officers. Last year’s tax reform act made significant changes to Code Section 162(m). The IRS also recently published a Notice that explained some of these changes in more detail. To address these issues, public companies may need to review their administrative practices, particularly how they keep track of their covered officers (which now include CFOs) and executive agreements. Also, because there no longer is a performance-based exception, they may want to consider revising their incentive plans to address business goals rather than former 162(m) requirements. Before doing so, however, they will want to make sure they don’t cause exempt agreements to lose their grandfathered status under the prior Code Section 162(m) requirements.

Our companion blog, Employee Benefits Law Report, summarizes these changes and identifies the steps public companies should take to respond to them. Read the full article here.