There are viable alternatives to EMI if a company does not qualify or an individual employee does not meet the criteria to participate. Thomas Dalby sets out the key considerations for advisers.
There is an increasing expectation in the labour market that there should be an equity component in employee reward; in some sectors like the IT and biotech industries UK employers will be competing for talented employees with US and other overseas companies that offer equity as a matter of course.
When advising smaller companies the first item in the adviser’s toolkit is an enterprise management incentives (EMI) plan; by granting EMI options an employer is giving employees the single most tax advantaged form of remuneration.
However the EMI legislation sets a number of qualifying criteria that a company or...
