Topical discussions about employee ownership and employee share plans
HMRC announced that its Trust Registration Service (TRS) was open for non-taxable trust registrations with effect from 1 September 2021. Historically, it may not have been necessary to register an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) using the TRS if it was not subject to a tax liability....
Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs) can be a useful part of employee share ownership plans, particularly for privately held companies. If you’re considering an EBT as part of your employee share scheme, it’s a good idea to understand how they work, what they can be used...
RM2 was interested to read about the views of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) on the use of Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) as vehicles for tax avoidance in their pre-budget submission, as reported in The ESOP Centre’s newspad. CIOT have suggested that EOTs are, in...
Managing any employee share plan or share option plan, and carrying out the administration, can be a huge task which can get on top of your already hectic work life. HMRC requires all plans and relevant events to be registered with them, and it’s all...
Too complicated Keep it simple. As a business owner, you want the financial interests of your employees as closely aligned with yours as possible. Give an employee shares (or an option) so that they do well if the business does well. That’s often complicated enough. A...
Employee ownership offers many benefits for businesses and employees, including helping to attract the best talent to a company, improving employee engagement and boosting staff retention. However, it’s inevitable that some employees will leave at some point, whether to move on with their career, due to retirement or...
It’s with huge sadness that RM2 announces that Nigel Mason has died, peacefully and after an illness which he faced with typical courage and positivity. He was a leading light in the sector and has been instrumental in the amazing growth in employee ownership schemes of...
While the government may have announced an increase in National Insurance contributions (NICs) of 1.25% for both employees and employers to help fund the NHS and social care reforms (with effect from 1 April 2022), RM2 note that the attractiveness of tax-advantaged employee share plans...
One of RM2’s mantras is “Keep it Simple” so we’re always keeping a weather eye on the work of the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS). Their most recent reports have focused on capital gains tax simplification, including a section in their second report suggesting simplifications for...
There are many good reasons why Employee Ownership, in its various forms, is an increasingly popular business model in the UK. When employees share in the ownership of a business, their interests are aligned with those of shareholders. This means that employees are more likely...
When we begin to speak with clients about employee share plans, one of the questions we are often asked is, “what size should the award be”? This is, of course, an extremely important question, but unfortunately not one which is necessarily very simple to answer. There are...
So, you think that you might want an Enterprise Management Incentive share option scheme (EMI)? Well, there are a couple of other commercial issues that you may wish to consider even at this very early stage in the EMI implementation process. What size of option pool...
Fast growing entrepreneurial businesses that implement Enterprise Management Incentive share options are very frequently the same businesses looking for external funding from venture capitalists, or seeking investment from individuals under the tax-advantaged Enterprise Investment Scheme. But how do these work together? Here are five things you...
RM2 does the research for the Employee Ownership Top 50, a list of the largest 50 private employee-owned companies in the UK which has been prepared annually since 2014. RM2 publishes the list in a partnership with the Employee Ownership Association (EOA). Key findings: By tracking the...
Let’s go back to basics, and explore the fundamental benefits, potential pitfalls, and overall reasoning behind establishing an employee share scheme. What is a Share Scheme? A share scheme is a way to offer equity-related rewards to employees. By awarding employees with a share of the company,...
