About Share Incentives
The world of share incentives and employee ownership is currently one of the hottest topics and a huge priority for the current government. The law is constantly changing and companies are regularly having to grapple with new legislation, new guidance and new ideas. In such a complex, ever-changing area, where the repercussions of getting it wrong can be unforgiving, companies need to understand the law and implement it correctly.
Corporate governance content
Reports on executive pay are regularly in the news. We include subtopics on corporate governance, remuneration issues for financial services firms and a comparison of UK Corporate Governance remuneration principles.
Disguised remuneration
Get updated documents and a Practice Note examining common disguised remuneration scenarios in share schemes. There’s nothing like this elsewhere.
Key Share Incentives developments
Keeping up-to-date on developments naturally important. We produce a weekly Share Incentives highlights report and email it straight to subscribers' inboxes. It's also posted on our news carousel.
Topics We Cover
Our Share Incentives Experts
Nicky Griffin
Stephen Woodhouse
David Pett
William Franklin
David Cohen
Latest Share Incentives News
This week's edition of Share Incentives weekly highlights includes a focus on executive remuneration issues....
Tax analysis: The Final Report of the independent review of the Loan Charge, together with the government’s response to the Final Report, were both...
Tax analysis: The government published Finance Bill 2026, also known as Finance (No 2) Bill 2024–26 and Finance Bill 2025–26 (FB 2026), on 4 December...
The National Insurance Contributions (Employer Pensions Contributions) Bill was published and had its first reading on 4 December 2025. The second...
Private Client analysis: Finance (No 2) Bill 2024–26 (F(No 2)B 2024–26), also known as Finance Bill 2026 and to be enacted as Finance Act 2026, was...
Latest Share Incentives Practice Notes
Corporation tax relief and employee share schemesCorporation tax deduction for costs incurred in setting up and operating employee share schemesCosts...
Types of salary sacrificeFORTHCOMING CHANGE: On 26 November 2025, as part of Budget 2025, it was announced that from April 2029, only the first £2,000...
Deferred share bonus plans—UK listing rules and shareholder approvalThis Practice Note details the obligations placed on quoted companies in respect...
Share plans and share hedgingTypically when a company adopts a new plan, it will initially plan to satisfy awards either:•using newly issued shares,...
Offering shares to workers engaged via an employer of recordIntroductionThis Practice Note discusses the key UK tax and legal considerations that...
Latest Share Incentives Precedents
CSOP rulesRules of the [insert name of company granting CSOP options] Company share option plan[Approved by the company on [insert date on which the...
Settlement agreement additional clauses-share plans1Details of AwardsAs at the Termination Date, you hold awards granted to you relating to the shares...
Declaration of trust for the transfer of sharesFORTHCOMING CHANGE: Following a call for evidence in 2020, the resulting outcome published in 2021,...
EMI standalone share option agreementFORTHCOMING CHANGE: On 26 November 2025, as part of Budget 2025, it was announced that with effect from 6 April...
EMI share option scheme rulesRules of the [insert name of company granting EMI options] enterprise management incentives SchemeFORTHCOMING CHANGE: On...
Latest Share Incentives Q&As
Featured Share Incentives content
Malus and clawback
Malus and clawbackThe use of malus and clawbackThe concept of withholding or even recovering value from executives if a material adverse event occurs...
What is a long-term incentive plan?
What is a long-term incentive plan?A long-term incentive plan (LTIP) is a term that is commonly used among listed companies to describe executive...
Nil paid shares and partly paid shares—practical considerations
Nil paid shares and partly paid shares—practical considerationsWhat are nil paid shares and partly paid shares?When shares are issued, their...
Implementing share plans—ways to manage dilution of existing shareholders
Implementing share plans—ways to manage dilution of existing shareholdersWhat is share dilution?Share dilution happens when a company issues...
Introduction to enterprise management incentives (EMI) schemes
Introduction to enterprise management incentives (EMI) schemesIntroduction to EMI schemesThe EMI scheme is a highly flexible and tax-efficient scheme...
Corporation tax relief and employee share schemes
Corporation tax relief and employee share schemesCorporation tax deduction for costs incurred in setting up and operating employee share schemesCosts...
What is an employee benefit trust?
What is an employee benefit trust?The EBT as a trustAn employee benefit trust (EBT) is a form of trust. A trust refers to the legal relationship...
Phantom share awards and options
Phantom share awards and optionsWhat is a phantom award?Phantom awards, broadly speaking, can be split into two categories, phantom share awards and...
Growth shares—practical examples and comparisons with options
Growth shares—practical examples and comparisons with optionsWhat are growth shares?Growth shares, also known as value shares or hurdle shares, are a...
Value Creation Plans
Value Creation PlansWhat is a Value Creation Plan?The term ‘Value Creation Plan’ (VCP) normally refers to an employee incentive plan which is designed...
Cashless exercise of options
Cashless exercise of optionsWhat is a cashless exercise of options?The ‘cashless exercise’ of options or a 'cashless exercise facility' refers to the...
Employee ownership trusts
Employee ownership trustsWhat is an employee ownership trust?An employee ownership trust (EOT) is a particular type of employee benefit trust (EBT)...
Shares for non-executive directors—issues and considerations
Shares for non-executive directors—issues and considerationsMeaning of ‘non-executive director’The general definition of ‘director’ is not exhaustive....
Underwater share options
Underwater share optionsWhat is an underwater share option?'Underwater option' is the term used to describe a share option (granted under any share...
What is a SIP?
What is a SIP?This Practice Note provides an introduction to the HMRC tax-advantaged share incentive plan (SIP). It provides a summary of:•the types...
Pitfalls of setting up and operating an employee ownership trust
Pitfalls of setting up and operating an employee ownership trustWhat is an employee ownership trust?An employee ownership trust (EOT) is a particular...
Long-term incentive plans—income tax and NICs treatment
Long-term incentive plans—income tax and NICs treatmentTypes of LTIP awardsThe most common type of awards that can be made under a long-term incentive...
Notice of exercise of option
Notice of exercise of optionThe Company Secretary[insert date of letter][insert name of company who granted the option] (Company)[[insert address of...
Associated legal terms
Deferred share bonus plan
A deferred share bonus plan is an employee share incentive scheme where some/all of the employee’s bonus is paid in shares instead of cash, and payment of the shares is deferred for a specified period, during which the participant must remain employed in order to receive the shares.
Malus
Malus is an additional hurdle to the vesting of a share incentive award under which, if a material adverse event takes place, the company can reduce or extinguish the amount the awardholder may otherwise receive under that award. For further information.
Share Incentive Plan
Share Incentive Plans (SIPs) (formerly known as Approved Employee Share Ownership Plans) are tax-advantaged share plans, that meet the requirements of Schedule 2 of ITEPA 2003. They were introduced in 2000 as a means of encouraging employees at all levels to acquire shares in their employer company.
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