EMI Share Options: Explore an EMI Share Option for Your Employees
Service overview: EMI share options and legal advice
- EMI share option schemes are a way of offering your employees a legal right to later purchase shares with very favourable tax treatment. The value an employee can realise will increase in proportion to any growth in the value of the shares after the option is granted, so this is an ideal way to align employees’ interests with the company’s/shareholders’.
- Shares are popular with high-growth and high-risk companies, like tech start-ups, as a way to attract, reward, and retain hard working staff right through to an exit (such as the company being sold).
- Both the company and the employee must meet certain conditions to qualify for the scheme, or the tax benefits might not be realised. EMI schemes are HMRC tax advantaged share option schemes, as they need to meet specific requirements set out in tax legislation to enjoy the tax advantages.
- We can handle everything from checking whether your company and employees qualify and valuing your shares (and agreeing the value with HMRC), to planning and drafting share scheme rules and award agreements, as well as registering the plans with, and notifying options to, HMRC.
- EMI share options can be combined with a number of other types of non-tax advantaged share insentives like unapproved share options or growth shares/hurdle shares.
- Check out our FAQs on EMI schemes for lots of useful information on creating a scheme and how it can benefit your company and employees.
Why choose our EMI solicitors? Our experience
We’re a modern law firm with a difference. Our innovative remote operating model means that you can access expert City-grade legal advice from partner-level solicitors at a fraction of the cost of traditional law firms. Our solicitors have all been recruited from top 100 UK law firms or large international businesses.
Find out more about our employee incentives lawyers here:
What our clients say
We pride ourselves on delivering an excellent service for clients, but don’t just take our word for it.
Harper James have been fantastic. They always provide quality advice with quick turnarounds and, every time, we're pleasantly surprised when the invoice comes in!
We’ve been working with the team for over a year and since day one they've been pragmatic, diligent and above all, committed throughout. They work hard to add value and have been of great benefit to us and our investors.
Quick, concise and best of all reasonably priced
Over the years Harper James have helped us navigate complex legal issues and red tape, providing distilled options and legal consultancy that far exceeds the service levels we’ve previously experienced from more traditional law firms. The team act like our own in-house counsel so, regardless of which lawyer we work with, we feel supported and that they truly have our best interests at heart.
As an on-demand client with Harper James Solicitors I like the assurance of having a legal services provider which is there as and when the business needs it.
