In March this year HM Treasury issued a Call for Evidence on the effectiveness of Enterprise Management Incentives (EMIs) in fulfilling the Government’s policy objectives of helping Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) recruit and retain employees. The Government’s objective for this call for evidence was to gather more evidence to understand whether the EMI scheme…

June 2, 2021 Read more >

The 2021 AGM season has been notable for a spate of high-profile challenges to executive remuneration policies. Proxy advisers and institutional shareholders have shown scant regard for status, size or, in some cases, performance. Astra Zeneca received no Government furlough cash, yet made bonus awards and proposed increases to LTI vesting multiples. Shareholders registered a…

June 2, 2021 Read more >

The UK Corporate Governance Code (“the Code”) was updated in 2018, but as with all reforms of this nature, the effects could not be measured until a full cycle of disclosure had occurred.  In the last couple of weeks, the FRC have published a report (“the Report”) providing a review of how these changes have…

June 1, 2021 Read more >

Earlier this year, the High Court in the matter of Euro Accessories Ltd [2021] EWHC 47 (Ch) held that a discount should be applied in determining the value of a minority shareholding that is subject to compulsory purchase at “fair value”. In this case, the petitioner held 24.99% of the issued share capital of the…

June 1, 2021 Read more >

An annual return needs to be submitted by all companies who have an active employee share plan registered with HMRC. This includes tax-advantaged share plans such as EMI, CSOP, SAYE and SIP as well as any non-tax advantaged plans or arrangements such as unapproved options, conditional share awards (or restricted stock units), growth share plans…

April 28, 2021 Read more >

As part of its long-term strategy around taxation, the administration of tax and wider tax policies, HM Treasury have split out the aspects of the recent Budget that related specifically to these areas.  As a result, Tuesday 23rd March saw the publication of a raft of tax policies and consultations. The impact of this work…

March 27, 2021 Read more >

On Wednesday 24th February, the Investment Association published an update on its previous guidance seeking to update IA member expectations on how Remuneration Committees should be reflecting the impact of COVID-19 on executive pay. The main thrust of the update was an addendum to the original guidance that it published in November 2020 which we…

February 25, 2021 Read more >

Last month, the QCA published its updated guidance for remuneration committees. The guidance is well-written and contains useful guidance for small and medium-sized companies, with helpful examples. It also indicates a tougher regulatory regime for AIM companies. The guidance starts by defining an effective remuneration committee in the following terms: “Effective Remuneration Committees ensure both…

January 25, 2021 Read more >

1. Introduction For so long as the UK was part of the European Union, some types of EU legislation such as Regulations and Decisions, were directly applicable as law in the UK pursuant to section 2(1) of the European Communities Act 1972. Other types of EU legislation such as Directives were implemented through domestic legislation.…

January 25, 2021 Read more >

The roller-coaster that was 2020:  The FTSE100 index entered 2020 at 7,542.40.  By the start of the first lockdown in March, it had dropped to 4,993.90, a fall of nearly 34%.  At the time of writing, the FTSE has risen to 6,572.18, up nearly 32% but still almost 13% below where it was at the…

December 22, 2020 Read more >

Introduction In July this year, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak asked the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) to carry out a review of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to ‘identify opportunities relating to administrative and technical issues as well as areas where the present rules can distort behaviour or do not meet their policy intent.’ Publication of…

November 27, 2020 Read more >

Our April newsletter included an article on restricted share schemes, in particular making reference to research from the Purposeful Company (published at the end of 2019) suggesting that a growing body of investors are willing to consider alternative remuneration structures (to the standard LTIP), if the Remuneration Committee can argue the strategic benefits of adopting…

November 27, 2020 Read more >