In our two part series, we'll be looking at the tax advantages of company share option schemes for directors looking to reward, retain, and incentivise their staff. In brief, a share option gives a recipient the right (but not the obligation) to acquire shares in a company in the future. This can give employees the chance to share in the growth of the company, providing strong incentives, whilst being very cost-efficient from the company’s perspective as well. In this part, we'll focus on two of the more common schemes used by SMEs: Company Share Option Plans (“CSOPs”) and Enterprise Management Incentive schemes (“EMIs”). The second part will examine Share Incentive Plans ("SIPs") and Save As You Earn schemes ("SAYEs"). ...

Click here to download our Winter 2015 Intelligent Tax Newsletter. This issue focuses on employee shareholder schemes, including: Employee Ownership Trusts EMI Schemes: A Summary Employee Shareholder Status

The concept of Employee Shareholder (ES) Shares was introduced in September 2013. In exchange for an employee signing away some of their employment rights, they receive shares in their employing company (or its parent) worth at least £2,000.  They are deemed to pay £2,000 for the shares and any value in the shares above £2,000 is taxable on them as a benefit in the year of receiving the shares. Given the relatively small income tax exemption of £2,000, ES is easy to overlook, but what advantages can ES shares actually bring?:- -  HMRC are willing to agree a value for the shares prior to them being issued to an employee. No pre-transaction valuation agreement process is available under normal circumstances for shares acquired ...

Under rules introduced in 2014, the owners of a trading company and their employees could benefit from the introduction of a qualifying "Employee Ownership Trust" (EOT).   The concept is that control of the company is sold to a Trust, whose beneficiaries are all employees of the company. Vendor Shareholders The existing owners' benefit is that they could pay no capital gains tax on the sale of shares to the trust, as opposed to the 10% rate of tax that they would ordinarily expect to pay if they qualify for Entrepreneurs' Relief on a sale to a third party. So this does represent a tax saving to them if they believe that their best exit route is a Management Buy Out, or a wider employee share ownership arrangement. To benefit from...

A roundup of the latest news from the world of tax for individuals, businesses and professional advisers. Click on the links below to view the full articles. Do Nil Rate Legacies include the Transferable Nil Rate Band? Loring v Woodland Trust highlights the care that must be taken when interpreting (and drafting) nil rate band legacies in wills. Employee Share Ownership Update A summary of some recent changes to the rules for; employee shareholders, EMI share option schemes and share incentive plans Business Property Relief Update New technical guidance is available regarding the impact on BPR of (a) surplus cash, and (b) partnership structures. Is a Dividend Waiver a Settlement? HMRC continue to pay close attention to income spli...

See our Spring 2014 Tax Update for more recent cases. The current government are encouraging towards direct ownership by employees of shares in their employing company:- The Introduction of Employee Shareholder Shares From 1 September 2013, an employer can provide shares with a value of at least £2,000 to each of its employees. In exchange for these shares the employee will become an "Employee Shareholder"; such an employee will have redcued employment rights, including a lack of redundancy rights and restricted unfair dismissal rights. The tax implications of providing Employee Shares are as follows:- - The first £2,000 of value in shares are received tax and national insurance free by the employee - Gains on a future sale of these...

A roundup of the latest news from the world of tax including highlights from the Autumn Statement 2013 and recent tax cases of interest. Click on the links below to view the full articles. Demolition of a home - Private Residence Relief and CGT The recent case of Paul Gibson v HMRC provides some interesting points in relation to capital gains tax and Private Residence Relief. Entrepreneur's Relief & Surplus Cash We have recently been involved in a recent case where assurance was sought from HMRC that surplus cash would not affect the company's trading status. New Reliefs for Indirect Employee Ownership  An outline of the new rules for qualifying "Employee Ownership Trusts". Changes to Capital Gains Tax - Autumn Statement 2...