33E Tax laws or regulations may oblige an entity to withhold an amount for an employee’s tax obligation associated with a share-based payment and transfer that amount, normally in cash, to the tax authority on the employee’s behalf. To fulfil this obligation, the terms of the share-based payment arrangement may permit or require the entity to withhold the number of equity instruments equal to the monetary value of the employee’s tax obligation from the total number of equity instruments that otherwise would have been issued to the employee upon exercise (or vesting) of the share-based payment (ie the share-based payment arrangement has a ‘net settlement feature’).

33F As an exception to the requirements in paragraph 34, the transaction described in paragraph 33E shall be classified in its entirety as an equity-settled share-based payment transaction if it would have been so classified in the absence of the net settlement feature.

33G The entity applies paragraph 29 of this Standard to account for the withholding of shares to fund the payment to the tax authority in respect of the employee’s tax obligation associated with the share-based payment. Therefore, the payment made shall be accounted for as a deduction from equity for the shares withheld, except to the extent that the payment exceeds the fair value at the net settlement date of the equity instruments withheld.