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This excerpt taken from the AMGN DEF 14A filed Mar 22, 2007. Tax Considerations Section 162(m) of the Internal Revenue Code places a $1 million limit on the amount of compensation that we may deduct for tax purposes in any year with respect to each of our Named Executive Officers, except that performance-based compensation that meets applicable requirements is excluded from the $1 million limit. The executive compensation program is designed to maximize the deductibility of compensation. However, when warranted due to competitive or other factors, the Compensation Committee may decide in certain circumstances to exceed the deductibility limit under Section 162(m) or to otherwise pay non-deductible compensation. These circumstances have included the following:
A limited number of incentive stock options, which are not tax deductible at the time of grant, exercise or upon a subsequent qualifying disposition of the underlying shares, may be granted to the Named Executive Officers as part of the stock option portion of their annual long-term incentive grants. Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code requires that “nonqualified deferred compensation” be deferred and paid under plans or arrangements that satisfy the requirements of the statute with respect to the timing of deferral elections, timing of payments and certain other matters. Failure to satisfy these requirements can expose employees and other service providers to accelerated income tax liabilities and penalty taxes and interest on their vested compensation under such plans. Accordingly, as a general matter, it is our intention to design and administer our compensation and benefits plans and arrangements for all of our employees and other service providers, including the Named Executive Officers, so that they are either exempt from, or satisfy the requirements of, Section 409A. With respect to our compensation and benefit plans that are subject to Section 409A, in accordance Section 409A and regulatory guidance issued by the IRS, we are currently operating such plans in compliance with Section 409A based upon our good faith, reasonable interpretation of the statute and the IRS’s regulatory guidance. Pursuant to that regulatory guidance, we expect that we will be required to amend some of our plans and arrangements to either make them exempt from or have them comply with Section 409A by the IRS’s deadline, which we currently anticipate will be December 31, 2007.
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