At RM2 we have occasionally had cause to wonder whether HM Revenue & Customs (“HMRC”) actually read the Enterprise Management Incentive valuation submissions that we make on behalf of clients.We are, of course, aware that HMRC view Enterprise Management Incentive (“EMI”) valuations as low risk (and...
Zero tax on an employee share plan, the Share Incentive Plan ("SIP") sounds too good to be true. Even the Enterprise Management Incentive ("EMI") only delivers a 10% capital gains tax rate to participants – and that’s after employees have paid something to exercise their...
Discretionary share schemes Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) and Company Share Option Plan (CSOP) options are popular choices for companies who want to operate their share option arrangements flexibly. Both plans allow the directors an element of choice and discretion in key areas: Who gets to benefit ...
Each year the Employment Related Securities (“ERS”) service of HMRC issues penalties for share scheme returns not filed by the deadline date of 6th July. HMRC released the following statistics on the number of penalties issued for 2017/2018 tax year: 9,253 first penalties issued (£100...
On 28th November 2018, the Investment Association (“IA”) published a revised version of its principles of remuneration. The main changes are: Firstly, a recommendation of a minimum two-year period during which executives are required to hold their shares post any termination of their employment that may have...
In time honoured tradition, we hereby stick out our necks and make five bold predictions for what might happen in our world of employee share ownership in 2019. Employee Ownership Trusts (“EOT”) will graduate from niche to mainstream, five years after their introduction in the...
The big story of the year has been the increasing number of companies converting to employee ownership by selling to an employee ownership trust (“EOT”). Here’s a run down of what went down this year in the world of employee share schemes and employee ownership: January: Trust...
A recent case about entrepreneurs’ relief is jammed with tedious legal jargon about equitable remedies and the like. Luckily, most of the salient points in Dieno George v HMRC ([2018] UKFTT 0509 (TC)) have already been covered by a number of the greatest 80s popular...
There was a flurry of excitement in relation to the Budget announcements about changes to entrepreneurs’ relief (“ER”), which impacts on Enterprise Management Incentive (“EMI”) options.We summarised these in our Budget blog. Some grumpiness arose because up till now, EMI option holders only had to...
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”...
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...
