Thu 13th March 2008
Alastair Darling announced that, from 6th April 2008, the upper limit on the value of shares that can be offered under an EMI scheme...
Fri 29th February 2008
Nearly 80 per cent. of employers offering employee share options under the Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) say that the scheme...
Fri 25th January 2008
Alastair Darling's new CGT rules offer some crumbs to small business owners but have little effect on employee share schemes.
Fri 11th January 2008
HBOS has announced a payout of approximately £12m to its workforce of almost 14,000 staff following the maturity this week of its...
Wed 9th January 2008
Regulations coming into force in April will allow more companies to qualify as "small", and thus escape the requirement to expense...
Tue 8th January 2008
Leading City firm Close Brothers is suffering defections by senior staff as rumours grow of an imminent takeover bid. Five member...
Mon 10th December 2007
In recent years the ABI have chosen the month of December to issue revisions to their guidelines for executive remuneration.
Wed 28th November 2007
A big majority of non-executive directors at unlisted companies think they should receive shares or options as part of their pay,...
Thu 8th November 2007
The Employee Share Ownership Centre and Clifford Chance are leading calls for a change in the tax rules that apply to share schemes...
Fri 19th October 2007
In the pre-Budget statement on October 9th 2007, the Chancellor announced that the previous capital gains tax regime would be abolished...
Sat 15th September 2007
The Treasury has raised the bonus rates on Save As You Earn (SAYE) share option schemes. This reflects a general rise in interest...
Fri 15th June 2007
We understand from HM REvenue & Customs that, within the next two years, they will require most employee share scheme returns...
Fri 15th June 2007
We understand from HM REvenue & Customs that, within the next two years, they will require most employee share scheme returns...
Fri 11th January 2008
HBOS has announced a payout of approximately £12m to its workforce of almost 14,000 staff following the maturity this week of its SAYE ("sharesave") share option scheme.
The average participant benefited to the tune of about £1,000. This is well within the current capital gains tax exemption of £9,200. Assuming participants have not utilised their exemptions with other gains, this means that their SAYE benefits will be tax free.
Sharesave schemes permit employees to save between £5 and £250 a month over 3 or 5 years. At the end of the savings contract they receive a tax free bonus. They can use the proceeds of the savings contract, plus the bonus, to acquire shares in their employer, usually at a price equal to the price at the start of the contract less 20 per cent. They therefore benefit from any rise in share price that has taken place over the contract period, with the 20 per cent. thrown in as an endowment.
A big advantage of an SAYE scheme is that employees can ask for their money back at any time up to the end of the savings contract. They are therefore insulated from risk over this period. RM2 has implemented and administers a number of SAYE schemes and we have found that one of the most valued aspects is simply the provision of the savings contract - employees say that this has allowed them to accumulate savings that otherwise they would not have made. For further details of SAYE schemes, you can download a fact sheet from this site, or just contact us.