Executive Compensation Issues for Foreign Employees: Granting Incentives, Deferred Compensation, Tax Issues, and More

This CLE/CPE course will provide employee benefits counsel an in-depth analysis of key issues for structuring foreign employees' compensation plans. The panel will discuss how to design cross-border employee compensation programs to maximize tax savings. The panel will also discuss compliance for foreign pension and compensation arrangements that cover U.S. taxpayer employees, inbound foreign employee compensation and taxation, granting incentives under U.S. plans to foreign employees, and other key considerations.

Structuring compensation plans can raise significant legal issues, considerations, and consequences for employers and executives, including tax, securities, corporate, and employment law, among others. The complexities of these legal issues significantly increase for multinational employers with plans that cover foreign executives who may become subject to U.S. tax laws and foreign plans that cover U.S. executives.

Counsel must prepare to anticipate and avoid pitfalls in the details when structuring compensation plans and executive employment agreements, including those addressing incentive pay and equity grants, for foreign employees. Special considerations must be given to foreign pensions and compensation that cover U.S. taxpayer employees.

Counsel must navigate issues stemming from various tax rules, including on inbound foreign compensation and subsidiaries outside of the U.S., and other challenges in designing multinational compensation programs and maximizing tax savings.

Listen as our panel reviews the various types of executive compensation and key challenges for foreign executives; techniques and considerations for negotiating severance provisions; best practices for drafting restrictive covenants; and more.