Railroads must pay excise taxes on the value of stock options exercised by their employees, a divided federal appeals court ruled Monday.Siding with the Internal Revenue Service, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held income from the options falls under the definition of “compensation” in the Railroad Retirement Tax Act.The statute — which is the railroad industry’s equivalent of the Social Security Act — requires railroads to pay an excise tax on employees’ wages and also to …