Toronto Star - End tax break for Canadian executives' stock options, report urges

Canada’s 100 highest paid corporate executives are sitting on $2 billion worth of stock options, much of its value under-reported and all of it qualifying for beneficial tax treatment, a new study says.

Though perfectly legal, the practice of granting some portion of executive pay in the form of stock options has become highly controversial, partly because they have been a factor in the soaring value of executive pay.

But also because they encourage corporate chiefs to manage their companies for the benefit of shareholders at the expense of customers and employees, the report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says.

“Executive bonuses, especially in the form of stock and option grants – represent the most prominent form of legal corruption that has been undermining our large corporations and bringing down the global economy,” the report says, quoting Henry Mintzberg, a management professor at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management.