Introduction to employee share schemes

This subtopic is intended as an introduction to employee share schemes for corporate tax lawyers. If further details are required, the advice of a share incentives specialist should be sought.

See the subtopic on Employment-related securities for detailed consideration of the tax treatment of shares, securities and unapproved securities options acquired in an employment context.

Introduction to share ownership schemes

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Introduction to employee share ownership schemes—which details why companies use employee ownership models and provides a high-level description of the main types of share ownership arrangements used by UK companies. The Practice Note also outlines some important issues to consider when implementing share scheme arrangements in UK companies
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The advantages and disadvantages of each share incentive arrangement—which seeks to highlight the main advantages and disadvantages of each of the nine most commonly utilised share incentive arrangements in the UK. The Practice Note details the advantages and disadvantages of the four main tax advantaged share schemes (enterprise management incentives schemes, company share option schemes, save as you earn schemes and share incentive plans) as well as analysing unapproved options, long-term incentive plans, growth/value

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