Our submission addresses our main concerns in relation to the issue. In particular:
- There are a number of difficulties with the existing employee share scheme rules, and we would welcome this opportunity to fix the rules for all affected employers and employees, not just start-ups.
- We are concerned about the high costs of compliance with employee share scheme rules for all companies, but particularly the costs of valuations for unlisted companies. We would suggest that unlisted companies be able to take a balance sheet approach to base the share value on the net assets of the company disclosed in the financial statements.
- We would support a method which allows the payment of tax to be deferred until a year in which the employee is able to realise the value of their shares/options.