Stock options allow the employees or directors of quoted or unquoted companies to acquire their companies' shares at a price that is fixed in advance, in order to allow them to become shareholders of their companies and hopefully make a financial profit. 

Key stages

The Board of Directors or Executive Board decides to offer some or all employees the possibility of subscribing to or acquiring shares within a particular period at a permanently fixed price, which may be discounted.
 
For quoted securities, the granting price is equal to the average of the security’s rates at the twenty stock exchange sessions before the granting of the option. Any discount may not exceed 20% of the granting price. 

Beneficiaries are allotted a certain time, fixed by the company, to take up the option and acquire the shares at the price set on granting of the option.
If the price of the share has gone up, acquisition of, or subscription to the shares will immediately fix a capital gain on acquisition.
 
The capital gain on acquisition is equal to the difference between the price of the share on the day that the option is taken up and the price at which the option was granted and is taxed at the time of sale of the shares.

The holding period begins to run from the end of the “tax unavailability” period (4 years) even if the options were exercised earlier.
 
When assignment takes place after a holding period of the shares greater than or equal to 2 years, the tax applied to the capital gain on acquisition is reduced.

The capital gain on assignment is equal to the difference between the price of the share on the day of its assignment and its value on the date when the option was taken up.