If you’re just starting to think about rewarding employees in your company with shares, it can be difficult to decide what’s the best plan for you. There are a variety of plans to choose from. Some plans are tax efficient, and you can tailor many...
If you’re new to share plans, you’re probably going to be coming up against some pretty horrible jargon. Here’s a quick and dirty guide to some of the terms you’ll come across at the outset of your employee share plan journey – what they mean and...
By the time this blog lands, it seems likely that the UK will have a new government. It's natural to wonder if this will mean a big change for employee share plans and employee share ownership generally. However, whether we’ve woken up on Friday 5th...
HMRC have taken their time before publishing tax-advantaged employee share scheme (ESS) statistics for the tax year 2022 (at the end of May 2024). This may be because they had discovered data processing errors in the years from 2015 to 2021. In fact, HMRC have...
Recently we’ve been getting a lot of enquiries about all employee share plans. The Share Incentive Plan (SIP) in particular seems to be ticking a lot of boxes for companies, both private and listed. Here are just ten factors explaining why companies use SIPs to...
For some business owners, selling all their shares to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) is the complete solution to their succession worries. Key benefits of selling to an EOT Sellers pay no capital gains tax if they sell a majority shareholding to an EOT. This means that...
Many private company business owners like the idea of incentivising employees via a share scheme. Advantages include attracting and keeping key talent in a competitive market. Using equity can also be an attractive alternative when cash is tight, and salary requirements are high. Founders who’ve built...
If you’re running an employee share plan, especially if you’re setting up a scheme for the first time, there are some trip hazards that you may not be aware of. These may vary depending on the share plan you’re using. Check these points out to...
As summer holidays come to an end, business owners often start thinking about getting an employee share plan in place for a New Year launch. With that in mind, it feels like a good time to go back to basics and think about the first...
Okay, maybe not those ears, but the ears of HM Treasury and HM Revenue & Customs, at least. There are currently two real chances to provide feedback to government on how employee share ownership plans are working for your business and your employees. Consultation on EOTs Employee Ownership...
Contrary to popular belief, us share plan lawyers don’t really like making things complicated just for the sake of it. So over the past couple of years, we’ve been delighted that the powers that be have taken the time to consider how tax-advantaged employee share schemes...
Companies with employee share plans in place have until Tuesday 6 July to file their annual returns with HM Revenue & Customs on their Employment Related Securities portal. If you have granted options to your employees, or given them shares, or let them buy shares –...
Selling your business to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) doesn’t necessarily mean that the commercial operation of the business will change significantly after transition. Of course, the company will still need to operate profitably, particularly if you’re still going to be paid out of post-tax...
When business owners come to us to ask about share plans, the first port of call is almost always the ever popular Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) option plan. EMI is very flexible and tax efficient and will work for many smaller companies. But there is an...
The end of the tax year means that it’s time to make sure all your employee share plans information is up to date. If you’ve got an employee share scheme, you’ll need to file a return on HMRC’s Employment Related Securities portal by 6 July...
