ERSM300000 - Tax-advantaged schemes
The concept of tax advantaged share schemes originated in FA 1978 with the introduction of approved profit sharing schemes (APSS, since abolished). In FA 1980 the Savings Related Share Option Scheme was introduced. Sometimes known as Sharesave (or SAYE), it is an all-employee share option scheme that links regular savings with share options. Discretionary share option schemes were introduced by FA 1984. They are now referred to in the legislation as CSOP schemes (previously known as company share option plans or executive share option schemes) and, as the previous name implies, employees are selected to participate rather than the company being obliged to invite all employees to take part.
FA 2000 introduced two new schemes, the Share Incentive Plan (SIP) and the Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI). The former replaced the APSS with the flexibility to provide different types of share award and, like SAYE, it is an all-employee scheme. EMI, unlike the other schemes does not have an approval process, and is intended to help small higher risk companies to recruit and retain skilled employees.
- For more information on Introduction to Tax Advantaged Share Schemes, see ETASSUM11000 (external users can find the guidance at ETASSUM11000)
- For more information on Share Incentive Plans (SIP), see ETASSUM20000 (external users can find the guidance at ETASSUM20000)
- For more information on Approved SAYE share option schemes (SAYE), see the section at ETASSUM30000 (external users can find the guidance at ETASSUM30000)
- For more information on Company Share Option Plans (CSOP), see the section at ETASSUM40000 (external users can find the guidance at ETASSUM40000)
- For more information on Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI), see ETASSUM50000 (external users can find the guidance at ETASSUM50000).