The government has recently announced that as of the 1st December 2016, the income tax and capital gains tax reliefs associated with employee shareholder status (ESS) are abolished. Obtaining ESS had been a way for companies to gift shares to its employees without the employee incurring an income tax charge in exchange for the employee waiving certain employment rights. However, the government has stated that there is evidence that ESS had been used for tax planning and the abolition of the tax reliefs is in response to this evidence.
Although this announcement may appear surprising, the restriction of the CGT relief available for ESS shares earlier this year indicated the direction that the government might take in future over ESS. Nevertheless, for those employees and companies who entered into ESS arrangements before the 1st December 2016, the tax advantages will continue to apply. For small companies looking for a tax efficient way to transfer shares to employees going forward, the main scheme left is the enterprise management incentive scheme (EMI). Under EMI, employees are granted share options that can provide a number of tax benefits to both the company and the employees. However, for the company and the employee to be eligible for the scheme there are a range of tests that need to be met.
This article deals with the 29 December 2024 judgment of the Employment Tribunal in Mr. P Hemmings v Mischon De Reya LLP, and focuses on Mr. Hemmings’ claim for constructive unfair dismissal. Although this is a first-instance judgment and it therefore does not bind future Tribunals to interpret…
This article provides a short summary of Bev Gleeson’s successful claim of indirect sex discrimination (she also succeeded in her unlawful deduction of wages claim) in respect of her employer’s decision to deny employees on a career break a one-off £1,500 payment (which was paid to all other…
Since the draft Employment Rights Bill 2024 was published in October, we have had various requests from employer clients asking us what they need to be doing to do to prepare for the proposed changes to employment law
If you are a football fan and interested in employment law, you will no doubt have been eagerly awaiting the outcome of Benjamin Mendy’s claim that his former club, Manchester City (“City”), unlawfully made deductions from his wages. As Employment Judge Dunlop (“EJ Dunlop”) said: “I am fairly…