How EMI Compares to Other
U.K. Tax-Advantaged Plans
HMRC offers four employee share schemes that have tax-advantages to both
employers and their employees. SAYE and SIP are for all employees, while CSOP and
EMI can be given to employees at the discretion of the company.
Many employers choose to offer EMI instead of other employee share plans, due to
the above factors we've outlined. This has contributed largely to an increase in the
number of companies operating share plans, which rose by 8% between 2017-18 and
2018-19 tax years.
According to HMRC's most recent snapshot
2
of employee share scheme statistics,
the average tax relief per employee is considerably higher for EMI schemes when
compared to other tax-advantaged schemes. This can be explained by the fact that
EMIs are granted to fewer employees in a company, and the maximum value of these
options being granted can be up to £250,000 per employee, but it does show that for
some companies wanting to incentivise key employees in a tax-efficient way, EMI is a
good option.
20,000
30,000
10,000
0
40,000
60,000
50,000
80,000
90,000
70,000
200
300
100
0
CSOP
£10,580
EMI
Total relievable gain/value (£m)
Total
value
(£m)
Per
employee
(£)
Per employee (£)
SAYE SIP
400
600
500
800
700
£83,260
£3,620
£7,520
WHY ARE EMI SHARE PLANS SO POPULAR IN THE U.K.?
5 | SHAREWORKS BY MORGAN STANLEY
2
SOURCE: HRMC
