Since 6 April 2018 companies have been unable to grant new EMI options, because the existing EU state aid approval expired without fresh approval having been received. So there has been much excitement today at the news that the EU Commission has now given state aid approval, and companies can now grant new EMI options. … Continue Reading
Originally mooted by Theresa May during the hustings for the leadership of the Conservative Party (see our report), the proposal to enable employee representation on the Boards of UK companies finally assumed the status of formal government policy on Wednesday (5th October 2016) with the measure being specifically mentioned in the Prime Minister’s closing speech to … Continue Reading
In several posts last year, we charted the development of the new HMRC rules for the online registering, self-certifying and making of annual returns for share plans, and indeed all arrangements under which employees receive shares. Now the dust has settled, the teething troubles have been ironed out and the templates for the new “end-of-year” returns … Continue Reading
Although it is dated June 2014, BIS has just published the Government’s response to the consultation last November asking whether it would help the cause of employee ownership were the limit on the life of an employee benefit trust (currently 80 years) to be removed. There weren’t many responses (28) and no strong feeling/evidence either way, … Continue Reading
The parts of the UK Finance Bill relating to share plans came into force yesterday, finally implementing many of the recommendations of the Office of Tax Simplification in this area. The main thrust of the new regime is online registration and self-certification of plans and filing of annual returns, of which more details are given in … Continue Reading
Before the financial crisis it was relatively common for UK private companies to use partly paid shares to incentivise key members of staff. Under these arrangements shares were issued to recipients for market value by the company but the subscription price was left outstanding on the terms that it could be called up on the occurrence … Continue Reading
In a speech this week, Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander is reported as saying that there was “more to be done” to enhance the profile of employee ownership and “we as a government have to constantly keep under review what we can do to help”. We couldn’t agree more. We suggest that one thing the Government could … Continue Reading
