Employee shareholder shares

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Archived: The ability to offer tax-favoured employee shareholder shares or ESS (commonly used in private equity company arrangements) has now been removed. This was announced in the Autumn Statement 2016.

The changes relate to any employer shareholder agreements made on or after 1 December 2016.

The changes do not affect ESS agreements entered into prior to 1 December 2016.

The decision to abolish ESS followed evidence suggesting that the ESS is being used for tax planning purposes instead of for its originally intended use of supporting a more flexible workforce. The measure currently does not affect

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