Which employee share incentive plan? How to secure investor funding?

Advice to help you raise investment finance and reward employees in a tax efficient manner.

Share schemes can be a very useful way of raising funds for investment, securing and rewarding staff through an employee share incentive plan, or planning a business for sale. HM Revenue & Customs approved schemes tend to benefit from tax advantages and are subject to specific requirements. Unapproved options offer greater flexibility however, with that comes minimal tax benefits.

Careful consideration needs to be taken between funds coming into the company (through EIS and SEIS investments for example) and the dilution of your ownership. You may need to retain key staff, through share incentive plans, the different types of scheme available will allow you to manage this trade off according to the business’s needs and your individual requirements as the owner.

We can help you understand and implement any of the following:

• Company Share Option Plans (CSOP)
• Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) 
• Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) for staff
• Save As You Earn (SAYE)
• Share Incentive Plans (SIP)