Budget 2012: Review of employee ownership and changes to EMI scheme

FINANCIAL PARTICIPATION

Budget 2012: Review of employee ownership and changes to EMI scheme

George Osborne has announced that the Treasury will undertake a review of the role of employee share ownership in “supporting growth and examine options to remove barriers, including tax barriers, to its wider take-up”.

The chancellor also announced changes to the Enterprise Management Incentive scheme (EMI). The individual grant limit will more than double from £120,000 to £250,000, while Entrepreneurs’ Relief will be extended to gains on shares acquired through EMI.

Extract from Budget 2012 Report

Page 47: Supporting employment
1.243

“. . . HM Treasury will conduct an internal review to examine the role of employee ownership in supporting growth and examine options to remove barriers, including tax barriers, to its wider take-up. The review will also consider the findings of the work on employee ownership being led by the Minister for Employment Relations, Consumer and Postal Affairs, due to report in summer 2012, and will conclude ahead of Autumn Statement 2012.”

Page 45: Reducing burdens on business
1.237

“To reduce the costs and barriers that regulation and administrative burdens impose on businesses, the government: will improve and reform the Enterprise Management Incentive scheme (EMI), which helps SMEs recruit and retain talent, by providing additional support to help start-ups access the scheme; by consulting on amending restrictions that currently prevent the scheme being used by academics employed by start-ups, and by more than doubling the individual grant limit to £250,000, subject to State aid approval.”

Page 60
2.47

“The government will more than double the individual grant limit from £120,000 to £250,000, to commence at the earliest opportunity following state aid approval and provide enhanced guidance to support start-ups. Entrepreneurs’ Relief will be extended to gains on shares acquired through EMI, and the government will consult on extending the scheme to academics employed by a qualifying company, from April 2013 subject to state aid approval. (Finance Bill 2013) (14)”