Posts about Emi

If you have an EMI scheme you're obliged to file an Annual Return to HMRC once a year, detailing all actions relating to your grant which took place over the last 12 months (eg. exercised grants, cancellations, taxation, replacement after an acquisition a.o.). If no actions took place, you still have to file this to HMRC through a Nil Report instead.

Every time your company issues a new grant as part of your EMI scheme, you need to notify HMRC through an EMI notification. If you’ve used Capdesk before, you probably know by now that the platform can generate and automatically fill out an EMI notification for you. If not, take a brief look at our blogpost on that and come right back!

Whether you’ve had an EMI scheme for a while, or just started setting one up, making EMI notifications for HMRC is always one of those tasks that take up more time than you’d like. This process requires you to either manually enter all of the grant recipient’s and issued shares’ details on the HMRC website, or to upload a spreadsheet of your own where you’ve been keeping track of this information.

A shareholder register is a common requirement for private companies in numerous countries, including but not limited to the UK, the US, and Denmark. Countries such as Sweden, Australia, and Finland keep an equivalent share register. The register consisting of a list of the company's shareholders, which was historically kept in a loose-leaf or bound book. Even today though, newly formed companies continue to use and manually update a hard-copy, despite the electronic version often being easier to maintain and just as acceptable from a legal perspective.

When setting up employee incentive schemes, such as a series of share option grants to key employees, vesting conditions are an important component. Vesting schedules basically express how the employee can earn more or more equity as employment continues and, in some cases, performance milestones are met.

Companies are becoming increasingly dependent on the quality and motivation of their employees. Employee share plans are an excellent tool to ensure motivation.

6th of July is almost upon us...