The draft Finance Bill 2014 contains more than 100 pages on employee share schemes. David Cohen looks at some of the key clauses and proposals.
Most of the approved scheme changes involve implementation of the already announced decision to abolish the requirement for prior HMRC approval of a scheme and to replace it with a self-certification process. This will take effect from 6 April 2014. Once a company has set up a scheme it must notify HMRC of the new scheme’s existence before 6 July in the tax year after that in which the first options or shares are awarded. Late notice will mean that the scheme will only qualify for tax-advantaged status from the beginning of the tax year preceding that in which the notice is...
