Devil is in the detail

THE ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT incentive scheme was introduced in the Finance Act 2000 with the aim of extending employee share ownership into small and higher risk enterprises. The scheme has been highly successful as demonstrated by HMRC figures which show that 7 250 companies have used it in the six years since its introduction and that 94 000 individual options have been granted.
The scheme was designed to be a highly tax efficient and flexible share option scheme. It offers the potential for option holders to pay just 10% tax which only arises when the shares are sold.
The EMI legislation (originally in Finance Act 2000) is in ITEPA 2003. It is both easy to read and reasonably logical. Very little of the legislation is new in that much has been transplanted from the enterprise investment scheme legislation and some from the approved company share option...