Government launches consultation on share schemes affecting employee owned businesses
HM Treasury has launched a call for evidence regarding two types of share schemes that impact many employee owned businesses: SAYE and SIP.
These schemes – Save As You Earn (SAYE) and the Share Incentive Plan (SIP) – impact many EOA members whose EO structure involves direct ownership.
The call for evidence, which was first announced as part of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Spring Budget, opened on 5 June and will run until 25 August.
As reported by The Daily Telegraph, the call for evidence will “likely be the widest consultation on these schemes since the introduction of the SIP in 2000”.
The aim of the exercise is to seek views from individuals and organisations on whether the schemes are meeting the government’s policy objectives, and whether they should be simplified. These objectives are:
- To align employee and shareholder interests
- To support recruitment and retention
- To encourage financial planning
Action by the EOA and its members
The EOA encourages all members who use these schemes to ensure you have your voice heard, by submitting a written response to the call for evidence. More information and a link to submit your response can be found here.
We are also asking members to let us know their thoughts by sharing your response with us. Send your input to our Policy and Partnerships Officer Sam Blakeborough.
We are directly engaging with HM Treasury on this matter and will be taking part in the consultation and evidence gathering exercises they are organising. Your input will be used to help inform our position so that we can best represent the EO sector. In addition, we’ll be feeding in insights and expertise gathered through our engagement with Specialist Advisors and other key stakeholders.
This activity will form part of our wider consultation exercises around our policy strategy. We encourage you to take part in these by attending our upcoming roundtables, which will help us co-produce a consensus of key challenges and opportunities for the EO sector and inform EOA action across a variety of priority areas fir EO businesses.
You can sign up to these roundtables, including one on EOTs, on our Events page here.
For any questions or suggestions on this or other policy issues, please contact Sam Blakeborough.
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