As a forward thinking accountancy company we pride ourselves on finding ways to save you time and money. We love helping our clients find the best ways to become more tax efficient, and the proof is in the pudding, with most of our clients saving more money on tax then they do on our fixed fees.
With this the a&c Team would like to introduce to you the Enterprise Management Incentive Scheme.
The Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) Scheme is an HMRC-approved share options scheme designed to incentivise key management personnel – it is low risk, low cost and highly tax efficient. Recent legislative changes in this area have made much more tax efficient, meaning that there has never been a better time to put an EMI scheme in place.
Some of the key benefits are as follows:
- Aligns the interest of key management personnel with those of the company
Options are granted to employees to purchase shares in the company at present day values, though they may be used when the company has grown significantly.
The employees are thereby incentivised to increase the value of the company so they can benefit from the capital growth in the shares, which due to recent changes in legislation would be taxed on the employees at only 10%, which can be significantly more efficient than a payment of a bonus.
Neither the company nor the employee incur any cost for the granting of the options, meaning that the only cost incurred until their exercise is the initial fee to set up the scheme.
The employee need only exercise the options and purchase the shares if and when they want to do this. This means that there is little down-side risk to the planning as, if the options are not exercised – if for example the share value has not risen – the employee is in no worse a position. However, they will
continue to be motivated to add value to the company due to the ownership of the options.
EMI schemes are highly customisable, meaning that the documentation can be drafted with the company’s specific requirements in mind. The options can be drafted to have performance criteria that must be met before they can be exercised, or it may be the case that you would like a minimum employment period, or a buyer to be in place, before the
options can be exercised. It may be the case that you do not want the employees to have voting rights, and therefore would like the shares that are granted to be non-voting. The scheme can be implemented such that a purchaser would buy the employee’s shares in loan notes, thereby keeping the employees in place for substantially reduced cost over a bonus, and increasing the attractiveness of the company for a potential purchaser. Alternatively, it may be the case that you want to create a market for the shares to be purchased from the employees through the establishment of a trust.
All of the above can be possible and we will work closely with you to ensure that the EMI scheme is designed with your specific requirements in mind.
For additional information regarding EMI, and to hear about the benefits of this scheme please contact the a&c Team, and we will be more than happy to guide you through all aspects of the scheme.
Tel: 0161 962 1855
Email: paul@ac-accounts.co.uk
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