Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Related legal acts
Key definition
Employee definition

What does Employee mean? Describes an individual engaged under a contract of employment (a contract of service) who enjoys the fullest employment law protections, such as unfair dismissal, redundancy pay, statutory notice and much family leave. In practice, employee status is determined by legislation read with case law on the reality of the relationship, typically examining personal service (no unfettered substitution right), employer control, and mutuality of obligation, alongside integration and other indicia. In England & Wales and Scotland, the Employment Rights Act 1996 defines an employee as an individual who has entered into or works under (or, where employment has ceased,...

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Archived advice letter: Becoming an employee shareholder (ESS) in Great Britain — statutory rights waived, eligibility requirements, and tax implications post-abolition of ESS tax reliefs (1 December 2016)

Precedents
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Archived: This Precedent is for illustrative purposes only as it reflects the position up to 1 December 2016.

The facility to issue tax‑favoured Employee shareholder Shares (ESS), frequently seen in private equity company arrangements, has now been withdrawn. In the Autumn Statement 2016, the government confirmed that the following ESS-related reliefs would be abolished:

  • the income tax and NICs relief applying to the first £2,000 of employee shareholder shares allotted to an individual
  • the capital gains tax exemption covering some or all of the ESS shares
  • the rule ensuring that, where a company buys back employee shareholder shares from an employee shareholder, the price paid is not treated as a distribution in the Shareholder’s hands

These withdrawals apply to any employer shareholder agreements entered into on or after 1 December 2016. Nonetheless, any person who obtained independent advice about entering into an employer shareholder agreement before 23 November 2016 could still complete the agreement before 1 December 2016 and retain the beneficial income and CGT advantages...

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Jeremy Glover (Share Schemes)
Jeremy Glover (Share Schemes)

Jeremy is a senior incentives lawyer who has over 18 years' experience advising businesses on their employee and executive incentives and share plans. Jeremy's practice focuses on the field of remuneration, executive pay, employee share plans and management buyouts. Jeremy advises a broad range of clients including multinationals, quoted companies, privately owned companies (family, owner-managed businesses, venture capital backed and private equity backed). He also provides specialist expert advice to other professional advisers such as accountants, tax advisers and remuneration consultants for their clients. Jeremy has worked in private practice and in-house and enjoys advising clients using the benefit of both perspectives. Jeremy used to head up the incentives practices at Reed Smith LLP, Stephenson Harwood LLP and the Entrepreneurial Group at EY in London. Jeremy is now a senior consultant to a number of law and accounting firms including Reed Smith LLP, PWT Advice LLP and...

Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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