I frequently hear clients and some of their advisers talk about “stock options” and “stock warrants” and there is often considerable confusion between the two. In this post, I’ll briefly describe the major distinctions between these instruments and how each can be used in a privately held company. [Read more…]
Equity Compensation Archives
Retaining Key Employees in a Privately-Held Company through Equity Compensation – Part 4: “Profits Interests” in LLCs and Partnerships
July 6, 2012 by
This post is the fourth in a series exploring techniques to attract and retain key employees, directors, and other service providers of privately held companies through equity-based compensation arrangements and alternative arrangements that provide cash payments tied to the value of the company’s stock or ownership interests.
Previously, I provided an overview and discussed the tax treatment of various equity compensation arrangements typically used by corporations, such as stock options, restricted stock, phantom stock, and stock appreciation rights. In this post, I’ll discuss a popular technique, called a “profits interest,” which is available to entities taxed as partnerships, such as limited liability companies (or “LLCs”). Profits interests can provide a tax efficient way to reward key service providers. Since LLCs are the most popular type of entity taxed as a partnership, for the rest of this post, I will assume that the entity in question is an LLC.
