Since September 1, 2019, the Argentine government reenacted FX controls and regulations. These FX regulations are applicable to certain operations.  Notwithstanding there are no foreign exchange restrictions applicable to restricted stock or RSUs, local employees may face difficulties in purchasing the foreign currency if the options are in foreign currency, or to transfer money abroad.

Aside from reporting requirements applicable to transfers in excess of AUD10,000 which are normally handled by the relevant financial institution, there generally are no foreign exchange control requirements applicable to options.

Reporting to the Austrian National Bank is required under certain circumstances.

Options are not subject to any significant foreign exchange restrictions.

Subject to certain foreign exchange requirements, employees may exercise options by sending funds abroad. Shares held outside of Brazil are subject to certain reporting requirements before the Brazilian Central Bank.

Options are generally not subject to any foreign exchange requirements.

Any investment in excess of USD10,000 by a Chilean resident in shares of a foreign company is subject to reporting requirements.  For cumulative investments in excess of USD5 million, additional reporting requirements apply.

Registration with the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) generally is required for foreign currency transactions (including the cross-border cash movements related to the stock awards).  Upon the completion of this registration, the local subsidiary in China (ie, the employer of the participating employees) is required to open a special foreign exchange account with an approved Chinese bank to process the receipt and transfer of funds related to the stock awards. Periodic reporting requirements apply. The applicable SAFE requirements vary by region and are subject to change.

Employee

When the option is vested by a Colombian resident employee and the stock is issued by a foreign entity, that investment must be registered with the Central Bank as a Colombian investment in foreign entities. The sale or transfer of the shares in the foreign entity by the resident employee must be reported to the Central Bank within a 6month period.

When the option is vested by a non-Colombian resident employee and the stock is issued by a Colombian entity, that investment must be registered with the Central Bank as a foreign investment in Colombia. The sale or transfer of shares in the Colombian entity must be reported to the Central Bank within a 6 month period. For these purposes, the foreign employer must file an Income Tax Return within 1 month after the transfer or sale of the shares.

Colombian entities and their foreign affiliates

The relationship between Colombian employers and the foreign affiliates that issue the shares may also have foreign exchange implications (ie, if the difference between the stock value and the option price must be reimbursed to the foreign party, a financial transaction between the Colombian employers and its foreign affiliate must be reported before the Central Bank).

The employee may hold funds abroad. Unless certain thresholds and other conditions are met, residents are no longer required to notify the Czech National Bank of the opening of an offshore account, to report the account balance or to notify the Czech National Bank when they receive or sell shares in a foreign entity.

The tax authorities must be notified by Danish tax residents of foreign exchange transactions and foreign accounts (eg, banking accounts, trading accounts).

Options are generally not subject to any foreign exchange restrictions.

At present, there are no foreign exchange controls in Egypt. An Egyptian bank must handle any transfer of funds.

Stock options are not subject to any foreign exchange restrictions.

Under certain circumstances, employees must declare the transfer of currency to or from France.

Reporting may be required for certain bank transactions.

Reporting may be required in connection with foreign exchange transactions.

There is no foreign exchange control in Hong Kong.

Options generally are not subject to any foreign exchange restrictions.

India has a liberalized remittance scheme under which Indian resident individuals are permitted to independently purchase foreign securities subject to the limit of USD250,000 per financial year. The recently amended foreign exchange regulations provide that while a resident individual is permitted to acquire foreign shares or interest under employee benefits schemes without limit, the remittances made will count towards such individual’s liberalized remittance scheme’s limit of USD250,000.

Additionally, the grant of stock options under an employee benefits scheme must be offered by the issuing overseas entity globally on a uniform basis, and the resident individual receiving stock options must be an employee or a director of an office in India or a branch of an overseas entity or a subsidiary in India of an overseas entity or of an Indian entity in which the overseas entity has an indirect or direct shareholding, "general permission" has been given, under Indian foreign exchange regulations, for an employee of the Indian subsidiary of a foreign company to indirectly acquire shares of the foreign parent company, as long as the overseas entity has direct or indirect equity holding.

For repatriation, if an individual acquires shares that represent less than 10 percent of the company’s share capital, the individual is required to repatriate sale proceeds within 180 days, however, if an individual acquires shares that represent 10 percent or more of the company’s share capital, the individual is required to repatriate the sale proceeds within 90 days of the transaction. Bi-annual reporting requirements may apply.

Although options generally are not subject to any foreign exchange requirements, routine reporting is required on foreign exchange transactions.

Options are not subject to any specific foreign exchange restrictions.

Other than rules relating to anti-money laundering and FATCA, there are no specific foreign exchange restrictions.

Reporting may be required for shares held outside of Italy.

Payment between an employee and the foreign parent company in excess of JPY30 million is subject to reporting obligations. Issuance of stock options of JPY1 billion or more may also trigger reporting obligations.

If the remittance of funds in relation to stock options is made in foreign currency, it is generally not subject to any foreign exchange requirements.

Option plans are not subject to any specific foreign exchange restrictions.

No exchange control or foreign exchange requirements or restrictions apply.

Generally, there should not be issues of foreign exchange restrictions.

Stock options are not subject to any specific foreign exchange control restrictions other than the generally applicable restrictions applicable to the repatriation of capital. Any inward remittance (eg, payment of a cash-settled Award, dividends or cash proceeds from the sale of Shares), must be made via government-authorized channels (ie, a licensed local bank) and a Certificate of Capital Importation issued in favour of the Participant (where the employer is the issuing company) to guarantee the ease of access to foreign exchange at the official rates for the repatriation.

Except for certain large currency transactions, there are no specific foreign exchange requirements.

There are generally no specific foreign exchange requirements applicable to stock options.

Reporting requirements may apply to currency transactions.

There are no foreign exchange controls in Portugal for transfers made by individuals. However, financial institutions may be required to notify the Bank of Portugal in case certain thresholds are reached.

Russian residents generally are allowed to remit foreign currency to purchase shares of foreign corporations. Provided certain restrictions and reporting requirements are met, employees generally may hold foreign currency in banks located outside of Russia. However, proceeds from a sale of the foreign stock must always be transferred to the bank accounts of Russian currency control residents, opened with a Russian bank.

In general, option plans are not subject to any specific foreign exchange restrictions.

Options are not subject to any specific foreign exchange restrictions.

Generally, there are no specific foreign exchange restrictions. Reporting obligations may apply under certain circumstances.

A tax clearance certificate from the Financial Surveillance Department of the South African Reserve Bank is required for the purchase of shares overseas.

The approval of the Financial Surveillance Department of the South African Reserve Bank is necessary for employees that exceed their offshore investment allowance limit of ZAR11 million. This limit is the aggregate of all amounts transferred out of South Africa by the employee at any time. Approval is required, whether or not the employees intend to use a cashless exercise method.

As long as the resident acquiring foreign shares or stock options works at a Foreign-Invested Enterprise as defined under the Foreign Investment Promotion Law, or a Korean subsidiary of an offshore company, the obligation to file a share acquisition report with the Bank of Korea will be exempted.

Transfer of funds outside Korea above a certain amount (currently USD5,000 as of May 3, 2019) to purchase shares must be confirmed by a Korean foreign exchange bank prior to such transfer.

• Circular 4/2012 of the Bank of Spain: This circular requires all Spanish resident individuals or entities to report to the Bank of Spain:
  

  • Own-account transactions with non-resident entities or individuals, for whatever reason and regardless of the way they are settled (through a Spanish or foreign bank account, through netting or physical cash); and

  • The balances and variations in foreign assets and liabilities when the transaction is greater than EUR1 million during a 12-month period.

This means a report must be filed when an employee or Spanish company purchases shares for more than EUR1 million. The report must confirm details of the shares acquired and be filed no later than January 20 of each year via a standard form on the Bank of Spain's website.

This reporting requirement is unlikely to be triggered by most employees who participate in an incentive plan given the high value threshold. It could however be triggered if a local employer pays a foreign parent via a recharge agreement for the cost of shares to be provided to its employees and such a payment is greater than EUR1 million. Local employers will likely be aware of this obligation already as it is not specific to incentive plans and applies to all transactions which they may undertake.

• Form D-5/A: With the entry into force on September 1, 2023 of the new Royal Decree 571/2023 of July 4 on foreign investments, the conditions for filing foreign investment declarations have changed. The D-6 form for Spanish investments abroad in negotiable securities has been abolished.

Instead, any Spanish resident who acquires shares in a foreign company, whether listed or unlisted, and whose holding is equal to or exceeds 10 percent of the company's share capital or voting rights, must declare this acquisition. This is done by filing Form D-5/A with the Investment Registry of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism. This process is mandatory and must be carried out after the acquisition has been completed.

The form must be filed by the end of January each year and contain information as of December 31 of the immediately previous year. The D-5/A must be submitted each year in order to show any new shares acquired since the last D-5/A was filed and shares declared in a previous D-5/A which are still owned by the employee.

Options are not subject to any specific foreign exchange restrictions.

Options are not subject to any specific foreign exchange restrictions.

Reporting is required for currency transactions exceeding certain thresholds.

Certain monetary restrictions apply to remittances for the purchase of shares in overseas companies. An authorized bank or dealer is required to remit funds overseas.

Certain repatriation requirements apply.

Turkish residents must purchase foreign shares through banks or intermediaries that are approved under Turkish Capital Markets legislation. Employees must, therefore, remit funds to purchase shares through a bank or an approved intermediary when they exercise their options. These exchange control restrictions generally do not apply if the cashless method of exercise is used.

Any transfers of foreign currency outside of Ukraine, including for the purposes of acquiring securities, stock options, RSUs or other equity compensation items, have been banned by NBU since February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, so as to preclude the outflow of capital outside of Ukraine during martial law.

Only specifically permitted cases of transfer, as per NBU's regulatory acts, may take place. These cases usually refer to acquisition of critically important products and services (equity awards for employees are not in the list).

Granting stock options to Ukrainian individuals, provided that there is no need to pay consideration from Ukrainian bank account for the stock options in question, should not lead to any foreign exchange implications.

Options are not subject to any specific foreign exchange restrictions.

Even though foreign exchange regulations have been substantially relaxed, and it is legal to buy foreign currency, the employee who want to buy foreign currency may face certain challenges depending on the amount.

After the SBV's approval on the registration of the stock award plan, the Implementing Entity must open an account at the commercial bank in Vietnam recorded in the SBV’s approval in order to implement the registered stock award plan (eg, sale of stock and receipt of dividends by relevant employees under such plan). Note that the Implementing Entity can choose the commercial bank and indicate such bank in the registration application.