Mayor Lee To Sign San Francisco Tax Relief Measure to Keep Start Ups
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)- San Francisco's Mayor Ed Lee said he will sign a measure to extend tax relief to growing companies that offer stock options and go public. Legislation was approved this week by the Board of Supervisors as an incentive to keep start-up companies within the city limits.
The legislation, proposed by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, would limit a company's annual tax liability on stock options to a maximum of $750,000 a year for the next six years. This would potentially save companies that go public tens of millions of dollars.
KCBS' Barbara Taylor Reports:
The issue took center stage earlier this year when Twitter said it could not afford to stay in San Francisco because of the city's steep tax on stock options. Twitter got a tax break and signed a new lease. Mayor Lee said as
Mayor Lee said as far as he's concerned this is the beginning of a larger effort to reform San Francisco's business tax.
"Yes I will sign it to allow companies to stay and grow in the city without what they view as a penalty for them going public on their stock options," said Mayor Lee.
He added that companies want the city to revisit the issue and that they will give it a solid year to do so and propose something next year.
San Francisco is the only jurisdiction in California that taxes stock options and it's shown to be a disincentive for companies to remain in the city once they go public.
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