Employee share plans are a wonderful way to attract new hires, incentivise key directors and motivate your staff. There is plenty of choice as to what kind of scheme you can use, and it isn’t always obvious which is the best one to choose. Before...
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 –...
Many private companies use employee share option plans, including Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) and Company Share Option Plan (CSOP), to deliver a reward to employees when the company is sold. If you’re considering selling your company, it’s important to make sure your share plan is in...
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...
You might have identified a sale to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) as a potential succession solution, but just because you’re transferring your business to your employees doesn’t mean you don’t want to get a realistic price for the company you’ve spent years building. Here are...
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...
It’s crucial for any company to retain their staff members, ensuring that the most talented employees stay for the long term, as opposed to moving on. Why retention is important This isn’t just about being kind to employees. Keeping your employees for a longer period can...
Jeremy Hunt’s spring budget made a couple of surprise announcements about employee share schemes, and it’s largely good news for companies with Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) schemes because it should make them simpler to put in place and administer. Changes to EMI Easier registration of the option...
If you are planning to leave your business, it is important to have the right exit strategy in place. Most people faced with this situation will think about selling to an investor or another business in the same sector, or perhaps a management buyout. While these...
Transitioning to an Employee Ownership Trust (“EOT”) can be the perfect solution for smaller family-owned businesses looking at succession planning. However, there is a specific qualifying point that occasionally presents an issue for these types of businesses. This is known as the...
HMRC have introduced some minor changes to the end of year share scheme return templates to take effect from 6 April 2023. The intention of the changes are to improve the quality of the data HMRC receive and to achieve greater consistency in reporting. The changes...
We recently blogged on HMRC’s update on the use of discretion in relation to the exercise of EMI share options (HMRC publish guidance on exercise of discretion in relation to EMI options - The RM2 Partnership). Lots of companies want to make the most of...
Over the last six months RM2 have completed two confidential Employee Ownership Trust (“EOT”) transactions in the motor vehicle retailing sector. In a sector keen on “new models” these clients were drawn to the relatively new M&A model of EOT’s (established in legislation in 2004 and...
