ISO

See: International Organization for Standardization.

International Organization for Standardization

A non-governmental organization that sets standard codes for countries and currencies. ISO sets the ISO 3166 codes for countries and provinces, which are used in international banking transactions and shipping. Likewise, it sets the ISO 4217 codes for individual currencies. ISO has its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and, because its standards are usually adopted into the law of member states, it is more powerful than most other NGOs.

Incentive stock option (ISO).

Corporate executives may be granted incentive stock options (ISOs), also called qualifying stock options. These options aren't taxed when they're granted or exercised, but only when the underlying shares are sold.

If, after exercising the options, participating executives keep the shares for the required period, any earnings from selling the shares are taxed at the owner's long-term capital gains rate.

However, stock option transactions may make sellers vulnerable to the alternative minimum tax (AMT).

ISO

see INTERNATIONAL STANDARDIZATION ORGANIZATION.

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References in periodicals archive

The Infrared Space Observatory, scheduled for an October launch, should help make such comparisons.

Beta Pictoris: young, not middle aged?

These advantages are underscored by the 10-micron image of Beta Pictoris (above) taken by a device whose twin will soon fly aboard the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory. We can clearly see an extensive disk of dust surrounding the star, one of several on the main sequence that the Infrared Astronomical Satellite unexpectedly found to harbor such disks.

Infrared arrays: the next generation

ESA's Infrared Space Observatory, scheduled for launch later this year, has an anticipated lifetime of only 18 months.

Space: the international approach

Although NASA craft dominate the lineup, the European Space Agency (ESA) has several key launches, including one of its most costly space probes to date, the Infrared Space Observatory. Japanese, Argentine, and Russian craft also figure in the array of launches.

Launches and liftoffs in '95: focusing on the star of the solar system

McMahon also plans to use the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory, scheduled for launch in a year, to search for molecular gas emissions in the far infrared -- wavelengths not easily visible from the ground because Earth's atmosphere absorbs them.

Searchlight on the cosmos; studying the universe by the light of distant quasars

But he views the finding differently, looking ahead to the 1995 launch of the European-built Infrared Space Observatory, which might actually glimpse the full Kuiper disk.

Distant object hints at the Kuiper belt