Subject: Re: Berkshire and SBC
...and of course the employee pays tax on exercising while it rids the corporation of an equal amount

this is true, as long as the company is not paying the employee's tax on the stock compensation, which it sometimes does. Otherwise, if you make $200,000 in salary and $100,000 in SBC, but you have the stock (and are often restricted from selling it) but you have to pay tax on that $100,000 out of your salary.

However, this too would be counted as compensation costs in the income statement, so it's already baked in, if the company is covering those taxes.

dtb