Tax and Employee Share Schemes
Enterprise Management Incentives (EMIs)
A company can offer you Enterprise Management Incentives (EMIs) if it has both:
- assets of £30 million or less
- fewer than 250 full-time employees
This gives you share options up to the value of £250,000 in a 3-year period. You must work at least 25 hours a week or 75% of your total working time for the company.
You will not have to pay Income Tax or National Insurance if you buy the shares for at least the market value they had when you were granted the option.
If you were given a discount on the market value, you might have to pay Income Tax or National Insurance on the difference between what you pay and what the shares were worth. If you buy the shares within 10 years of being offered them, you will not pay Income Tax or National Insurance on the difference.
You may have to pay Capital Gains Tax if you sell the shares.
Excluded activities
Companies that work in ‘excluded activities’ are not allowed to offer EMIs. Excluded activities include:
- banking
- farming
- property development
- provision of legal services
- ship building