By means of two different legislative interventions, at the end of 2019 and in the summer of 2020, the government provided tax incentives for the participation of employees or shareholders in the share capital of their employer or company (or of its parent company) through stock option and free share award plans. The principal incentive is that the difference between the value that the shares have, when the participant acquires them, and the amount (if any) that she/he paid in order to acquire them, is not treated under certain circumstances as income from employment, which may be taxed at a rate up to 44%, but is taxed at a rate of 15% or 5%. Another significant incentive is that income is deemed to arise not upon acquisition but upon disposal of the shares.

Recently the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) issued valuable guidance on these plans, which allows for their safe implementation from the tax point of view.

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