Share Schemes

Aligning management and shareholder interests can help businesses get the best out of their employees. Our employee share schemes specialists ensure these opportunities are maximised. We help businesses design and deliver employee equity packages in a tax-efficient, commercially sound and no-nonsense way.

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Why haysmacintyre?

Attracting and retaining talented employees is essential for high growth businesses seeking success. In today’s competitive job market, prospective employees are increasingly drawn to companies that offer more than just a salary.

Share schemes present an opportunity for businesses to provide employees with a stake in the company. By offering equity participation, businesses can align the interests of the workforce with the company’s goals. This encourages greater employee engagement, productivity, and satisfaction, driving the company towards its objectives.

We understand that every business is unique, therefore our team is well-versed in designing and implementing tailored share schemes that align with your company’s long-term plans. We can help you create a share scheme that attracts top talent, retains employees, and propels your business towards a thriving future.

How we can help

Whether your business is in high-growth stage, maturity or looking towards an exit, we can help ensure that your employee equity is aligned with the business’s wider goals. Where possible, we will ensure that any applicable tax reliefs are maximised to deliver the maximum net-value to your employees. We work with clients from the initial design phase of employee incentives, though to the implementation and employee communication.

Our services:

Advising on the most appropriate incentive plans for your business
Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) design and implementation
Company Share Option Plan (CSOP)
Growth shares
UK sub-plans for international share plans
Tax valuations
HMRC annual reporting of share/option awards (Form 42)
M&A and restructuring advice in relation to employee incentives

Recent work on Equity Incentives

View some of the equity incentives cases we have helped clients with.

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Enterprise Management Incentive options

EMI options allow employees to acquire shares in the employer. Companies in early or high growth stages would benefit most from EMI options.

Growth Shares

Growth shares are a special class of shares that only have value if the company’s share price is above a set hurdle. They are often used in employee incentive planning.

Company Share Option Plan

CSOP is a government backed tax-efficient employee option plan, which can allow companies to grant options to employees at today’s value, without suffering income tax or NIC on any increase in value.

Enterprise Management Incentive design and implementation

Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) is a government-backed employee option scheme that benefits from generous tax advantages compared with regular ‘unapproved’ share options.

From my perspective, every interaction with you and your team has been very professional and insightful. You suggested alternatives and different options for us that would most suit our very specific and complex needs! I was also very impressed with the turnaround times and grateful I didn’t need to chase for things (which seems to be the norm for most legal and tax service providers). Would highly recommend and hope to use you again in the future, with this business or the next.