Employee Benefits & Incentives Services

An Employee Benefit Trust (EBT) is effectively a discretionary trust, established as a tax efficient and flexible method of rewarding and incentivising key employees. An employer can make contributions to an EBT rather than paying bonuses directly to the employee. The trust can act as a warehouse for the shares until such time an employee becomes entitled to them or as a mechanism of holding shares granted to employees in the long term.

Jurisdictions

These services are available from:

• JERSEY
• SINGAPORE

An Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) is a defined contribution employee benefit plan that allows employees to become owners in the company they work for. Under an ESOP plan, companies provide their employees with the opportunity to acquire the company's shares at a reduced price over a period of time. Using a trust structure removes the need to cancel, issue or transfer shares as employees join or leave the company.

Jurisdictions

These services are available from:

• JERSEY

Employer Funded Retirement Benefit Schemes (EFRBS) allow employers to provide a benefit to employees in a simple and cost-efficient manner and at the same time provide tax advantages to the employer. Whilst the changes to the tax treatment of EFRBS removed some of the advantages, they continue to retain certain benefits when tailored as part of a bespoke tax structure.

Jurisdictions

These services are available from:

• JERSEY

This type of plan is formed as a method of providing an incentive to key employees over a period of time. These schemes involve an award of cash or shares to an employee dependent on them achieving certain performance targets. The awards can be retained in a trust and held until the employee's targets are reached.

We can also support Phantom Share Option Schemes. These flexible schemes are cash bonus plans with the bonus determined by the increase in the value of the company's shares subject to the option. No shares are physically issued or transferred to the option-holder on exercise of the phantom share option meaning that the company's share capital is not diluted. The company is also entitled to benefit from corporation tax deductions.

Jurisdictions

These services are available from:

• JERSEY

This is a tax efficient scheme established to enable companies either to give or sell shares in the company to employees. The shares must be held by the employee for a period of time set by the employer, following which the employer will generally match the shares held by the employee. Plans such as these are formed as long term incentives for employees of a company and can be offered as a valuable asset of a benefits package.

Jurisdictions

These services are available from the following jurisdictions:

• JERSEY

International Savings Plans are an innovative savings plan product for multinational employers, available in Jersey from 1 January 2019. ISPs enable large multi-national companies to set up savings plans in Jersey for non-residents. These plans differ from traditional pensions offered to employees. They are more flexible as they allow a pay-out to employees before the normal minimum pension age, either on termination of employment or on the occurrence of a major life changing event such as redundancy, ill health or divorce.

Our experienced team specialises in establishing and managing a variety of employee benefit schemes such as ISPs and is currently working with a number of multinational GCC businesses establishing and administering their employee benefits structures. We have created the ultimate guide to ISPs which provides further details on how to set up an ISP, why you need an ISP and what needs to be considered when setting up an ISP.