Sponsors (14)
The bill promotes broader employee ownership and eases employer administration through tax incentives and federal preemption, but does so at the cost of measurable federal revenue, added rulemaking/monitoring burdens, and risks that firms will game rules or concentrate benefits rather than delivering widespread, lasting gains to workers.
Employees (particularly the lowest-paid ~80% of eligible workers) receive periodic company stock that vests within five years and is excluded from taxable income at receipt, increasing employee ownership and reducing immediate tax burden for recipients.
Corporations that adopt SHARE plans can claim a lower corporate tax rate (3 percentage-point reduction per qualifying year) and deduct fair-market-value stock distributions, lowering corporate tax burdens and creating a stronger incentive for employers to implement broad employee-ownership programs.
Excluding SHARE-plan stock from income at grant/receipt simplifies tax treatment at the time of grant and can reduce withholding and administrative burdens for employers and employees.
The combination of the corporate rate reduction, deductible stock distributions, and exclusion of SHARE stock from income will reduce federal tax revenue and could increase deficits or require offsetting spending cuts or new revenue elsewhere.
Firms can structure SHARE plans or eligibility (e.g., excluding higher earners) and use valuation/deduction rules to maximize tax benefits while delivering limited real gains to workers, concentrating benefits and raising fairness concerns.
The deduction and valuation mechanics create opportunities for tax avoidance or aggressive structuring (issuing/valuing stock to generate deductions disproportionate to economic cost), risking erosion of the corporate tax base.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates a tax-favored employee equity "SHARE plan": corporate tax rate reductions for qualifying issuers and an exclusion of SHARE-plan stock from employee gross income.
Official title: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide a reduced rate of tax for corporations that maintain a plan for distributing equity to employees, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 23, 2025 by Thomas Suozzi · Last progress July 23, 2025
Creates a new tax-favored employee equity program called a "SHARE plan." Qualifying corporations that offer employees equity meeting minimum ownership and distribution rules can be designated "SHARE corporations" and receive a reduction in the corporate income tax rate (a 3 percentage-point reduction for each taxable year the corporation qualifies, subject to an overall cap tied to the market value of stock issued). Employees who receive stock under an approved SHARE plan may exclude that stock from gross income. The bill sets eligibility, valuation, vesting, deduction, and reporting rules and gives Treasury authority to implement regulations and publish an annual list of SHARE corporations.