I agree 100%. The government tells execs that they

I agree 100%. The government tells execs that they are greedy and that they should push ownership down into the ranks then they make it nearly impossible to do so with these tax structures that require employees to pay cash taxes for equity they may never be able to sell. That's why options have become so popular. There is no tax until you execute the option, however if the option is in the money, you have to report the difference between the strike price and the market price as ordinary income even if you don't sell the optioned share.

It will be interesting so see how they intend to pull this off with options? The IRS has always take the position that they value of an option is uncertain. Are they going to use Black-Scholes to value the option at vesting to come up with a taxable value? I don't see how it will pass a court challenge.