My understanding is that stock grants to employees are no longer tax advantaged and that's one reason they went away. I don't have a deep understanding here, so

My understanding is that stock grants to employees are no longer tax advantaged and that's one reason they went away. I don't have a deep understanding here, so if someone has a link to when this changed, I'd appreciate it. Was this mechanism intended to get around this tax problem and at the same time help out the company?