BIM44030 - Specific deductions - employee share schemes: Costs of providing shares to employees - introduction

Shares may be provided to employees in a number of ways:

• by a company (usually the employing company or its parent company) issuing new shares direct to the employees;
• through an employee share ownership trust set up and funded by contributions from the employing company - the shares provided to the employees may be existing shares bought by the trust, or new shares issued to the trust by the company;
• through an employee share ownership trust set up by the parent company of a group of which the employing company is a member, funded by contributions from the employing company and any other participating group companies (this is commonly known as a “group scheme”);
• through a global “group” share scheme if the employing company is a member of a multinational group of companies - the parent company may charge the employing company (an “intra-group recharge”) for allowing its employees to benefit from the scheme;
• in smaller privately-owned companies by the existing shareholders who control the company giving or selling their shares direct to employees.