Well, there is no real surprise. The largest employee-owned company in the UK is still the John Lewis Partnership, as it has been since records began. But ranking behind this much-admired behemoth in the annual league table is a dynamic group of companies, and changes...
Fantastic news that Aardman Animations, creators of Wallace & Gromit, have made the jump to employee ownership by way of an Employee Ownership Trust ("EOT") . Many congratulations to all involved! For many years, John Lewis Partnership has been the go-to name when you need to...
It goes without saying that, when share prices are low, that’s a good time to grant options, if only because it creates the possibility of greater gains for employees when the share price rises. For private company owners thinking about granting Enterprise Management Incentive options ("EMI"),...
Mr Hammond’s budget on 29 October didn’t look on the face of it to have very much in the way of excitement for share schemes, but there was certainly food for thought in particular for seekers of Entrepreneurs’ Relief (“ER”). The changes mean that Enterprise...
Recently (in the context of tax legislation) we published a blog on a couple who were able to benefit from entrepreneurs’ relief because their preference shares (with a fixed rate dividend of zero) were deemed to be part of the company’s ordinary share capital. “Ordinary share capital”...
In businesses the best incentives create behaviours which benefit the company. Would you like to enhance performance, productivity and personnel development whilst by achieving your Company’s strategic plan? Employee ownership across all employees which is implemented correctly and communicated strongly, can really make a difference. We...
What does the Labour Party’s announcement on “inclusive ownership funds” mean for employee ownership? At the moment, there’s not a huge amount of detail about Labour’s recently announced policy for 10% of shares in larger companies to be awarded to employees, with additional employee representation on...
Don't get caught out and unintentionally disqualify your Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) share scheme. If you think that any of the following issues may arise in your Company, please contact us immediately and where possible before any changes are made. To continue to qualify for EMI, the...
So, you’re a business owner and you’ve set up an employee share scheme such as an Employee Management Incentive Plan (EMI), with pay-outs conditional on a sale of the company. You might ask yourself – what should I be saying about my plans to sell? The...
If you’re just starting to think about putting in place a share scheme for employees, such as an Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI), a good starting point is our checklist . We’ve published some more detailed blogs on Step 1 (design questions) and Step 2 (how...
The law may be an ass but when it comes to employee share schemes, there are certain legal requirements that company directors, in particular, need to know about. Probably the biggest practical risk is that the share option arrangements may be questioned at a later...
Since the Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) was introduced, we’ve spoken to hundreds of business owners about how EOTs work. Here are some of the common misconceptions we encounter and have hopefully corrected: 1. I won’t get full value. True, if you want to maximise your day one...
The First Tier Tribunal has ruled in the Esprit Logistics Management Ltd and others v HMRC [2018] case that director loan accounts written off were taxable as employment income of the directors, and subject to PAYE and NIC, rather than taxed as dividends where a...
Employee ownership, and in particular Enterprise Management Incentive schemes (EMI) are at their most popular level ever. This is according to the latest HMRC statistics published in July. Key stats for EMI schemes: Total EMI schemes increased to 10,350 (up 16% on the previous year); Companies...
On 29 June 2018, the Financial Services and Services Markets Act 2000 (Prospectus and Markets in Financial Instruments) Regulations 2018 No 786 were published. These UK Regulations/Statutory Instruments amend the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (“FSMA 2000”) for the purposes of implementing the new EU...
