A group of 30 European tech startups—including the founders and CEOs of iZettle, TransferWise and Delivery Hero—penned an open letter decrying EU rules that make it costly for employers to give stock options to employees, saying it has caused “a brain drain of Europe’s best and brightest.” In countries such as Belgium, taxes are paid on stock options when they are granted, rather than when employees acquire the shares. That means if a startup fails, employees can end up paying for nothing. (The Telegraph)

Talking point: The tax regimes of Germany, Finland and Spain were recently ranked among the worst  in terms of encouraging employee ownership, in a study by venture capitalist firm Index Ventures. Index found that employees own only about 10 per cent of late-stage startups in Europe, compared to 20 per cent in the U.S.