ESOPs - What Are the Tax Benefits?

The owner gets wired, usually a pretty substantial paycheck. Usually owners don't communicate to the employees that this is going on until afterwards. I had one client and he was that outlier who shared a lot of financial information always with his team. And when he did the ESOP, he brought everybody in and he said, "I've sold half the company" All their faces dropped because they think all their jobs are going to China.