Readers' forum: Employment participation

We are looking at a disposal to an employee ownership trust. The key benefit is that the sale is exempt from capital gains tax if the qualifying conditions are met but a further benefit is that bonuses of up to £3 600 for each employee can be paid tax-free in the future.

A condition for the exemption is that the trust must be for the benefit of all employees (TCGA 1992 s 236J) with the exception of any ‘excluded participator’ (s 236J(5)). This is defined as participators in the company during the previous ten years and anyone connected to them.

My confusion is that the income tax exemption for payments made to staff (ITEPA 2003 ch 10A) specifies that the bonus must be paid under a scheme to benefit all employees (ITEPA 2003 s 312C). It does not appear to have a provision to exclude...