When Companies Write Off Stock Options Is It an Unfair Tax Break?

The NYT had an interesting piece on a provision in the tax code that allows companies to write off the value of exercised options as employee compensation. This is deducted from profits and reduces their taxes accordingly.

It is not clear that this treatment is improper. In principle, the value that the company is paying the executives getting options is the value of the option at the time it is issued. For example, if a company's stock is current valued at $10, an option to buy the stock at ...