Providing incentives to retain and incentivise key employees can be vital to the growth prospects of unlisted companies.

There are four main HMRC tax-advantaged schemes available:

• Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI)
• Company Share Option Plans (CSOP)
• Share Incentive Plan (SIP)
• Save as You Earn Options (SAYE)

We can advise you on each of the schemes and help you find the one which meets your requirements the best. Deciding on the best share incentive plan involves taking into account many variable factors including the tax position of the company and those eligible for the scheme.

Designing the plan

Once the right scheme has been identified, we can help you to design the plan and determine the conditions that will apply to it. This includes designing the scheme to maximise the available tax benefits and making it easy to administer.

Implementing the scheme

We can assist with the implementation of the scheme including:

• Ensuring it complies with HMRC conditions
• Preparing the share scheme valuation
• Advising on the accounting implications of the share scheme
• Annual share scheme reporting requirements if applicable