Stock-based compensation can have a significant impact on the effective tax rate. For US companies the effect is driven to a large extent by changes in the stock price. In 2021 this reduced the effective tax rate for many companies; however, in 2022 you could well see the reverse.
We use Netflix to explain the effect of stock-based compensation on cash taxes and deferred tax adjustments. The accounting is complex and made even more challenging for investors by differences between IFRS and US GAAP. Unfortunately, neither US GAAP nor IFRS financial statements may fully reflect the underlying economics.
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