OTS review of tax advantaged employee share schemes

The final report arising out of the OTS’s review of tax advantaged employee share schemes was published on 6 March 2012. It contains three main recommendations:

• abolish the current approval process and replace it with self-certification;
• further investigate the relevance of Company Share Option Plans (CSOP); and
• merge CSOP and Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI).

None of these seems destined to fly onto the statute book. Notwithstanding the obvious advantages of self-certification putting in place safeguards to protect the plan company its employees and the Exchequer is unlikely to be a very rapid or consensual process....