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The amendment to Article 64 of the Business Accounting Law states employee bonuses and compensation for board members should be handled by accounting principles; that is to say, employee bonuses, transfers of treasury shares that companies buy back to employees, and employee stock options should be listed as expenses.Taiwan’s Financial Accounting Standards Board drew up the Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 39 “Accounting for Share-Based Payment” and implemented the rule on Jan. 1, 2008. The implementation of the rule signifies compliance of Taiwan’s financial accounting with international standards. This amendment will bring out the decline of EPS and the impact to the long-term employee bonus system in enterprises.To benefit the shareholders and to keep talent employee, the company will have to adjust the bonus system against this new rule.This research uses case study analysis to look into the impact of employee bonus expenses on Taiwan’s high-tech and traditional industries and their shareholders. After collecting and analyzing secondary data, the results of this study are as follows: 1.After the listing of employee bonuses as an expense, bonuses awarded by companies in the high-tech and traditional sectors have shrunk. 2.The form of employee bonuses has changed: more and more companies issued all-cash dividends instead of the combination of cash and stock dividends. 3.The correlation between the amount of employee bonuses and operating income: the correlation is insignificant among high-tech and traditional companies except for chip designer MediaTek Inc. 4.The impact on net income: the impact on high-tech companies is positive and more significant. Although traditional companies were also positively impacted, the percentage of the affected companies is smaller. 5.The impact on income tax expense: in the high-tech industry, chip designer MediaTek Inc. had a bigger cut in income tax expense, while changes in income tax expenses among other high-tech companies and traditional companies were subtle. 6.The impact on shareholder dividends: after the listing of employee bonuses as an expense, companies issued fewer dividends to shareholders. Also, in the form of dividends issued, companies increasingly issued more cash dividends and even issued all-cash dividends. 7.The impact on imputation credit accounts: after the listing of employee bonuses as an expense, imputation credit accounts in high-tech and traditional companies have declined, and this is especially obvious in companies that used the new measure as a tax shield.
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