20 questions on employee ownership trusts

1. Why is employee ownership important?

Employee ownership has been an important part of government policy for a number of years. The Employee Ownership Association’s website (bit.ly/EOAweb) tells us the employee ownership is important because those businesses are more productive and innovative and more resilient to economic turbulence. Furthermore the employees are more engaged more fulfilled and less stressed. So if employee-owned businesses are in general more commercially successful then encouraging employee ownership must be good for the economy as a whole.

2. What is the tax relief all about?

Following the report by Graham Nuttall in 2012 a tax relief was enacted in FA 2014 whereby if the relevant conditions were satisfied the sale of the shares of a...