Written question asked by Lord Harrison (Labour) on Monday, 21 March 2016, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 6 April 2016. It was answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley (Conservative) on Friday, 1 April 2016 on behalf of the Treasury.

Employee Ownership

Question: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consultation or correspondence they had with companies offering employee share ownership schemes before announcing the withdrawal of HM Revenue and Custom’s valuation check service.

Answer

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has been consulting representative bodies through the Valuation Fiscal Forum over the last 18 months.

HMRC has not withdrawn valuation services that are most relevant to employee share ownership schemes.

These include:

Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI),
Company Share Option Plans (CSOP),
Save As You Earn share option schemes (SAYE),
Share Incentive Plans (SIP) and
Employee Shareholder Status (ESS).

HMRC has, however, announced a review of the valuation services for those schemes and is consulting interested parties.

HMRC has withdrawn valuation checks for income tax and PAYE that are not part of these recognised employee ownership schemes. Most people submitted acceptable valuations and therefore the valuation service offered was not seen as needed.

Secondary information