RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Example of PR for Proof Of ConceptSPCEO1 is correct, and this is a good article by jfm1330. Dawn's options exercise at this stage is a another very positive signal, but let's be clear, Dawn is doing it for one reason and one reason only...personal benefit. And that's exactly what we want to see here. Dawn is communicating that the stock is so cheap that she believes it cannot go much lower if at all. She's locking in the lower taxable spread between the current share price and options strike price that she believes she'll have the opportunity to lock in, which she will be taxed at the higher ordinary income tax rate. She is also communicating that she believes the stock price will be much higher later, in which she'll pay the lower capital gains tax rate on the spread between the stock price when she exercised the options and whatever future price she chooses to sell at.
If she waited to exercise and the stock price went higher, she would pay the higher oridinary income tax rate on the larger spread between whatever the future stock price and the options strike price. By not exercising all of her options, she may be thinking that she will have another opportunity to take advantage of any timing in the tax code to wait until just after the first of the year to capture the next round.
If she didn't believe the stock wasn't going to be higher or their was still more short-term risk, she would wait to exercise.
In my mind, this is a second best signal as compared to direct open market purchases of the stock by insders, assuming of course, she doesn't come back and sell those shares before year-end.
jfm1330 wrote: https://www.rcgt.com/en/tax-planning-guide/sections/section-5-employees/stock-options/
SPCEO1 wrote: Again, I am not a expert on this at all. Others will likely make how the taxes are handled on options exercises in Canada more clear than I have any chance of doing.
But, basically, I am looking at it as two taxable events.
The first is the options exercise which leads immediately to taxable income. I am not sure if the taxable income is the amount you paid to exercise the option or the value of the underlying shares at the time of exercise. If the latter, then her exercising now is a smart tax strategy assuming she expects the stock to be higher in early 2023. If the latter, it doesn't have any impact on her exercise timing. Either way, it is a postiive signal to TH shareholders. In the first instance, she is communicating she expects the stock to be meaningfully higher by late May of next year and wants to save on taxes by exercising in 2022 rather than 2023 even though she will have to part with her cash earlier than required. In the second scenario, she is incurrng an early tax hit just to tell us good news is comong. Now, her cost for those options was $13,000, so the tax hit will not be huge in any case whether taken this year or next.
The second txable event would be on the capital gain or loss she would take once she sold the exercised shares. She did not simultaneously sell any shares upon exercising these options so that is a future taxable event which willbe triggered whenever she sells.
I am sure there is a lot more too it than that, but this is my uninformed read of what Dawn did. If I am mostly right, it is a favorable indicator for the stock.
LouisW wrote:
I am not sure if I am understanding it correctly. If she exercise the option next year at higher price, then the tax will be higher?