BUSINESS LEGAL SERVICES
EMPLOYEE SHARE SCHEMES AND EQUITY INCENTIVES LAWYERS
Our employee share schemes and equity incentives lawyers work with a wide variety of high-growth startups and scale-ups
Careful planning and expert legal advice are needed to make sure that your employee share option plan meets the company’s commercial objectives, can cope with future changes to the company and workforce, takes advantage of whatever tax efficiencies and reliefs are available and provides protection for the company and its shareholders.
Experts in Designing Employee Share Schemes
As equity incentive experts, we have the skills and experience to help you design an employee share option plan that’s right for your company and it’s employees, non-executive directors and (where appropriate) contractors. Equity incentive awards made at an early stage are likely to provide the most tax efficiency, and where start-ups and growth companies become successful, awards may still be in place and very valuable years later (e.g. on an exit or investment round). So, it is important to get this right.
Our employee share schemes lawyers can support you with:
Designing a share plan
Advising on any regulations
Obtaining any necessary clearances from HMRC
Advising on how your company’s constitution
Drafting equity plan documents
Protecting the rights of investors
Assisting with The Board level
Advising on any employment law aspects
Assisting potential dilution and other impacts
Advising on Directors’ remuneration
What are the benefits of employee share schemes?
Incentives that give staff and service providers a real stake in the company they’re working to build offers tangible benefits to both growing and established businesses.
HMRC tax advantaged share plans
Our expert employee share scheme lawyers can help assess your company’s suitability for any of the following tax advantaged share plans, obtain agreements for share valuation from HMRC, draft incentive plan documents, and assist in your dealings with HMRC.
Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI)
Most suitable for small, high-risk companies, EMI share options are highly flexible and can provide very favourable tax treatment in respect of shares with a value capped per employee.
Company Share Option Plans (CSOPs)
If EMI is not available, CSOP options may be used to provide rights to acquire shares with a value capped as per law and regulation.
Save As You Earn Schemes (SAYE)
Under an SAYE plan employees can be offered options to purchase ordinary shares at a favourable price that are linked to a savings contract over a 3 or 5 year period.
Share Incentive Plans (SIPs)
under a SIP employees can be offered free shares and/or rights to purchase shares tax free (with potential matching free shares) with an aggregate annual value capped.
Employee Ownership Trusts (EOT)
EOTs can provide a tax efficient exit for existing shareholders while providing a platform for future employee share schemes (whether tax advantaged or non-tax advantaged). We can advise on the merits of selling your company to an EOT, help you structure and implement the sale and advise on implementing post-sale equity incentive arrangements.
Non HMRC tax advantaged employee share schemes
Non-tax advantaged employee share schemes do not need to meet specific legal rules like the HMRC tax advantaged plans mentioned above, so they can be more straightforward to set up. However, they may need to be structured carefully to attract the most effective tax benefits. Our employee share scheme lawyers can work alongside you to determine if a non-tax advantaged incentive plan is right for you and help with structuring, set up and ongoing administration:
Ordinary vs preferred shares and employee share classes
We can re-structure your company so you can make awards of ordinary shares to employees/consultants and advise on using different share classes to provide restricted rights for employee/consultant shares while retaining special rights for the existing shareholders such as voting rights and dividend rights as well as protection in respect of good leaver/bad leaver, compulsory transfer, drag along etc. These arrangements work well for early stage companies with shares of little value.
Growth share schemes
For growing companies with shares that have some value, an employee share class can be made subject to hurdle arrangements (growth shares) in order to reduce the acquisition value of the shares for employees. These arrangements work well to provide tax efficient equity incentives for early-stage and growing businesses which do not qualify for the HMRC tax advantaged arrangements, but the conditions that apply and issues relating to company valuation need to be carefully managed.
We can review your company’s suitability for an employee/consultant share class or growth share arrangement, draft amendments to your company’s constitution to create an appropriate share class, draft share subscription agreements and work with share valuers to assess the value of the shares at the time of acquisition and to incorporate an appropriate hurdle for growth shares if required.
Share options, restricted stock units (RSU), share appreciation rights (SAR) and phantom/synthetic options
These arrangements don’t normally require HMRC clearance or company valuation, and the paperwork can be more straightforward. Our expert team can advise whether a non-tax advantaged share option, RSU, SAR or phantom (cash) arrangement is right for you, provide appropriate documents and support you through the implementation process.
Who we help: High-growth businesses and consultants
High-growth companies tell us that finding and retaining top talent when a business is scaling is one of their key risk areas, and balancing the needs of founders, investors and employees (while managing cashflow and protecting working capital) is crucial, particularly when considering an employee share plan. That’s why entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs lean on us. We know how to get the balance right – introducing an employee share schemes plan that aligns with your business strategy now and later down the line.
Why choose Suis Law?
We’re a modern law firm with a difference. Our innovative remote operating model means that you can access expert City-grade legal advice from partner-level lawyers at a fraction of the cost of traditional law firms. Our senior lawyers have all been recruited from top 100 Middle East and Europe law firms or large international businesses. Our expert employee share schemes and equity incentive lawyers include:
Legal support designed
to fit your business needs
- An affordable solution for businesses needing one-off legal support. Receive ‘City’ partner-level expertise at a fraction of ‘City’ prices.
- A monthly subscription legal support package specifically designed for start-ups and smaller businesses.
- Providing you with priority access to a dedicated panel of highly experienced lawyers.
Say hello!
What next?
Please leave us your details and we’ll contact you to discuss your situation and legal requirements. There’s no charge for your initial consultation, and no-obligation to instruct us. We aim to respond to all messages received within 24 hours.
A national law firm
Our commercial lawyers are based in or close to major cities across the Middle East and Europe providing expert legal advice to clients both locally and nationally.
We mainly work remotely, so we can work with you wherever you are. But we can arrange face-to-face meeting at our offices or a location of your choosing.
Jeddah
London
United Kingdom