Company: PACB
Filing Date: 2025-04-23
Form Type: DEF 14A
Source: 0001299130-25-000090
Chunk: 86

Company: PACIFIC BIOSCIENCES OF CALIFORNIA, INC.
Filing Date: 2025-04-23
Form: DEF 14A
Chunk 86
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 provider receives “deferred compensation” that does not meet the requirements of Code Section 409A.

In 2024, due to the limitations of Code Section 162(m), we generally would have received a federal income tax deduction for compensation paid to our Chief Executive Officer and to certain other highly compensated employees only if the compensation was less than $1,000,000 per person during the year. As a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the ability to rely on the “performance-based” compensation exception under Code Section 162(m) was eliminated in 2017. Thus, following the effectiveness of this change, we generally will not be able to take a deduction for any compensation paid to our NEOs and certain other employees in excess of $1,000,000. We did not structure our compensation for our NEOs to qualify as performance-based compensation under Code Section 162(m). We accumulated net operating losses over several years and could not currently benefit from deductions we might otherwise be able to take if we did qualify compensation as performance-based under Code Section 162(m). Further, Code Section 162(m) generally had required a certain rigidity to qualify compensation as performance-based and we believed that it was in the Company’s best interest to retain flexibility and to structure programs in a manner to incentivize our executives to drive long-term stockholder value. Nonetheless, our Compensation Committee maintained for 2024, and intends to continue to maintain, an approach to executive compensation that strongly links pay to performance.

#### Equity Grant Practices
We maintain an equity award granting policy, as amended in 2024. Prior to the amendment, the equity award granting policy provided that stock options and other equity awards granted to our new employees below the level of vice president generally became effective on the first 15th day of the month to occur following approval of the equity award by the Compensation Committee (or the Board of Directors, as applicable), whereas stock options granted to our new employees at the level of vice president and above generally became effective on the date of hire. Any equity awards to be granted to newly hired employees below the level of vice president generally were not considered for approval until at least the month following the month in which employment began. The Compensation

| 2025 Proxy Statement |     | 64 |

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Committee delegated authority to an Equity Award Grant Committee consisting of our Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief People Officer and General Counsel, to approve equity awards covering shares of our common stock,