The government announced in the 2020 Budget that it would review the EMI share option scheme to ensure it provides support for ‘high-growth’ companies to recruit and retain talented employees and examine if a wider range of companies should qualify to grant EMI share options. To this end a “Call for Evidence” was published by HM Treasury in March 2021 (see: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/965555/Enterprise_Management_Incentives_Call_for_Evidence_2021.pdf ).
Click here to download David Pett’s response to that Call for Evidence. It sets out a number of suggested changes which could be made to the EMI Code to make it easier for qualifying companies to make best use of the tax-advantaged grant of EMI share options and to remove existing “traps for the unwary”.
The response will be of interest to anyone advising a company or its shareholders on the adoption of an EMI scheme or the grant of EMI share options.
David Pett, Tax Barrister 