Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Award definition

What does Award mean? In arbitration practice, an award is the arbitral tribunal’s written decision that determines the parties’ claims, defences and the relief granted. Legislation governs its effect and form in England & Wales and Northern Ireland (Arbitration Act 1996), Scotland (Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010) and Ireland (Arbitration Act 2010 implementing the UNCITRAL Model Law). Key features commonly include: writing, signatures, the date, identification of the seat, and reasons unless the parties agree otherwise. An award is generally final and binding as to the matters decided, subject only to limited statutory challenges (for example, lack of jurisdiction, serious irregularity, and in England...

Joint Share Ownership Plans (JSOPs) in the UK: commercial rationale, legal structure, tax treatment, valuation, accounting, risks and DOTAS

Published by a LexisNexis Share Incentives expert

Practice notes

What are JSOP awards?

Jointly owned shares are exactly what the term suggests: shares held together by an employee or director and another party — either a company investor or, more typically, the trustees of an employee benefit trust (EBT). Joint share ownership arose as a substitute for other share incentive arrangements, for example share options, restricted shares or performance share plans (frequently delivered via nil cost options). Under a joint share ownership plan (JSOP), the value received equals the uplift in the share price after grant (usually plus a ‘carrying cost’). Consequently, a JSOP operates like a market value share option, albeit with a distinct tax outcome. In essence, the plan focuses value on growth arising after grant, rather than existing value at the time of award for participants today.

Commercial rationale

The JSOP model offers a number of commercial strengths when set against alternative award structures. These include:

Compared with share options or performance share plans where share acquisition is deferred:

clearer alignment between participants and other shareholders because the participant immediately acquires beneficial ownership in a stake of the shares
by virtue of that ownership, an immediate entitlement for participants to receive dividends proportionate to share interest

...

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Stephen Woodhouse

After studying law at Leicester University and a career in the City of London spanning 30 years Stephen joined Pett Franklin as the third partner in the team on 1st December 2013.While practising in the City, Stephen trained at Slaughter and May working in their tax department for seven years after qualifying across a range of tax matters but particularly on employee share schemes. From there he joined Norton Rose to assist with building their employee share scheme practice. He joined Touche Ross (later, Deloitte LLP) in 1994 becoming a partner in 1999 until leaving Deloitte to join us on 1st December 2013.Throughout his career, Stephen has advised on tax with particular emphasis on employee share schemes and related remuneration issues. He has advised on both domestic and international issues and become an acknowledged expert on employee benefit trusts in their many...

William Franklin

William is an experienced share schemes practitioner. He is also a Chartered Accountant who is widely recognised as a leading adviser on the valuation, accounting and financial aspects of all forms of remuneration, incentive and employee share schemes. He is a member of the HMRC Employment-Related Securities & Valuations sub-group, contributes to Tolley's Guidance on Employment Taxes. William has considerable experience of determining and agreeing with HMRC the market value for tax purposes of shares in unquoted companies. As a physics graduate, he is also able to advise on IFRS2 accounting and some of the more arcane aspects of option pricing mathematics. Together with David Pett, he first developed the joint share ownership plan (JSOP). William previously worked for Pinsent Masons and Ernst & Young. He has been an active supporter of junior local cricket and...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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