Employee Incentives

We have a specialist team advising on executive remuneration and the design, implementation and day to day operation employee incentives and share schemes, including:

• All HM Revenue & Customs tax-advantaged plans, including Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) options, Employee Shareholder arrangements, Company Share Option Plans, Save As You Earn Plans and Share Incentive Plans
• Taxable share schemes and agreements, including unapproved share options, long-term incentive schemes and annual and deferred bonus schemes
• Growth shares, JSOPs and other bespoke tax efficient share structures
• Employee benefit trusts, including tax advantaged employee-ownership trusts and
• Cash-based employee incentive schemes and phantom share awards

In particular, we regularly help companies set up EMI option schemes for their employees, as these currently offer the greatest tax benefits but can also assist companies which are unable to qualify to operate an EMI scheme but are nevertheless looking to implement a tax-efficient alternative.

Our team provides practical and commercial support for companies on any share incentives implications where they are planning for or in the process of a corporate transaction. We also advise on all tax aspects of employee share incentives, as well as assisting with the employment law and HR aspects of these, particularly when employees are hired or fired.