Fair exchange?

KEY POINTS

• Shares for employee rights.
• Income tax charge on share acquisition.
• National Insurance cost to employers.
• Who controls the company?

The chancellor might like to feel that he is driving the economy around in a sleek Rolls-Royce.

However his announcement at the Tory conference on 8 October that in exchange for giving up many of their employment rights workers would be offered shares in their employing company might be seen by some as more closely resembling a dodgem car at the funfair.

It is not the place of a magazine that specialises in informing readers about tax matters to consider or challenge the ethos of removing workers’ rights.

There seems little doubt that political journalists will have plenty to say on that matter.

Instead this article considers some of...