Employee benefit trusts overview and administration

Produced by Tolley in association with Karen Cooper of CooperCavendish LLP
Employment Tax
Guidance

Employee benefit trusts overview and administration

Produced by Tolley in association with Karen Cooper of CooperCavendish LLP
Employment Tax
Guidance
imgtext

Background

Employee trusts are commonly used to support employee share schemes but can also be used as part of an arrangement companies put in place to pay cash bonuses or other benefits. There are many different names for them, including employee share ownership plans (ESOPs), employee share trusts (ESOTs) and employee benefit trusts (EBTs), but they all fundamentally serve the same purpose as discretionary trusts set up by a company or group of companies as part of its remuneration strategy for employees.

An EBT will be established by a company (the sponsoring company) which will provide it with assets (usually cash or shares). An EBT will often be funded by way of loan or the company may make it an outright gift. The document governing how the EBT operates is called the trust deed and rules. This lays down the obligations of the sponsoring company and contains the powers and duties of the trustees. The trustees must act in accordance with the terms of the trust deed and rules and also

Continue reading the full document
To gain access to additional expert tax guidance, workflow tools, generative tax AI, and tax research, register for a free trial of Tolley+™
Karen Cooper
Karen Cooper linkedinicon

Partner at CooperCavendish LLP


Karen is an experienced employee benefits lawyer with more than 20 years' experience in advising companies of all sizes in relation to their employee benefit and remuneration issues. She trained and worked for leading law firms Baker McKenzie LLP and Linklaters LLP and spent three years as a remuneration consultant at Ernst & Young LLP. Prior to co-founding Cooper Cavendish, Karen headed up Osborne Clarke LLP's employee benefit practice for 15 years.Karen is a thought-leader and regularly speaks and presents at industry conferences and events. She is a member of the Small Quoted Companies Alliance Share Scheme Committee and the Share Plan Lawyers Organisation. Karen is also the author of a wide range of legal publications including the chapter on executive remuneration in Sweet & Maxwell's 'Corporate Governance', the chapter on employee share schemes in Jordan's Company Administration and she contributes regularly to Tax Journal, and Practical Law (PLC). She is ranked as a leading individual on employees share schemes in Chambers and Partners and was recognised in the 2015 International Tax Review Women in Tax Leaders (a comprehensive guide to the world's leading female tax advisers).

Powered by Tolley+

Popular Articles

VAT on property disposals

VAT on property disposalsThis guidance note provides an overview of the VAT treatment of selling property that is located in the UK. The UK includes Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the territorial sea of the UK. The sale of any land or building located outside the UK is outside the scope of UK

14 Jul 2020 13:57 | Produced by Tolley Read more Read more

Inter-spouse transfer

Inter-spouse transferIntroductionWhen a chargeable asset is transferred between two spouses or civil partners, there is a disposal by the transferor spouse / civil partner and an acquisition by the transferee spouse / civil partner for capital gains tax purposes. For simplicity, spouses and civil

14 Jul 2020 12:01 | Produced by Tolley Read more Read more

What are connected companies for loan relationship purposes ― practical approach

What are connected companies for loan relationship purposes ― practical approachBrief overview of the rulesThe loan relationships legislation applies to any ‘money debt’ arising from the lending of money entered into by a company, either as a lender or borrower. The rules are contained in CTA 2009,

20 Apr 2021 16:00 | Produced by Tolley Read more Read more