Employee Stock Option Determination Of Adjusted Cost Base

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) changed its position relating to the determination of the adjusted cost base (ACB) for Canadian income tax purposes for shares acquired under employee stock option agreements and then immediately sold. CRA will accept identification of specific securities acquired under the option agreement as being the securities disposed of by the employee, where it is obvious that the securities sold are the ones that were acquired under the agreement. As a result, only the ACB of the securities acquired under the agreement would be used in determining the gain or loss on that particular sale.