⚠️  The tax information below is an extremely brief summary for standard situations of the referred relationship, and each situation may of course be different from the norm and have its own specificities. ⚠️

A more comprehensive set of information for this country and work relationship is available on Easop.

If you’re looking for more detailed information in this country (or if you are just curious about our global compliance offering and pricing), get in touch with us and we’ll tell you more about it! 💡

You can grant non-qualified stock options (NSO) to employees employed via a local subsidiary.  

In a nutshell, what does taxation look like?

The tax treatment of stock options in Belarus is quite favorable: the grantee doesn’t have to pay any taxes before they actually sells the shares (so neither at the time of grant, nor at the time of exercise of the stock options).

Taxation takes place at the time of sale, on the difference between the sale price on the one hand and the exercise price paid by the grantee on the other hand.

Are there specific formalities the grantee should comply with?

There are some light registration/notification duties applicable when the grantee exercises the stock options.

Since there’s no taxation before sale of the shares, there’s no point from a tax perspective in allowing early exercise.

You can grant non-qualified stock options (NSO) to employees employed via an “Employer of Record” (EoR) in Belarus.

In a nutshell, what does taxation look like?

The tax treatment of stock options in Belarus is quite favorable: the grantee doesn’t have to pay any taxes before they actually sells the shares (so neither at the time of grant, nor at the time of exercise of the stock options).

Taxation takes place at the time of sale, on the difference between the sale price on the one hand and the exercise price paid by the grantee on the other hand.

Are there specific formalities the grantee should comply with?

There are some light registration/notification duties applicable when the grantee exercises the stock options.

Since there’s no taxation before sale of the shares, there’s no point from a tax perspective in allowing early exercise.

You can grant non-qualified stock options (NSO) to contractors, but there are certain nuances if the person is working via personal company vehicle (as an “individual entrepreneur”).

There are two main different forms under which a self-employed individual can perform his/her activities in Belarus:

• as an “individual entrepreneur”
• as a natural person working under a civil law contract

Note that granting stock options to contractors could increase the misclassification risk (i.e. the contractor relationship being requalified as an employer-employee relationship, with all tax consequences that can go with it). This will never be the only factor though, what counts primarily for determining the degree of misclassification risk are factors relating to the modalities of the services performed (control over the contractor’s work, exclusivity, term of the services, etc.).

In a nutshell, what does taxation look like?

The tax treatment of stock options in Belarus is quite favorable: the grantee doesn’t have to pay any taxes before they actually sells the shares (so neither at the time of grant, nor at the time of exercise of the stock options).

Taxation takes place at the time of sale, on the difference between the sale price on the one hand and the exercise price paid by the grantee on the other hand.  

Are there specific formalities the grantee should comply with?

There are some light registration/notification duties applicable when the grantee exercises the stock options.

Since there’s no taxation before sale of the shares, there’s no point from a tax perspective in allowing early exercise.