Responding to the Budget of 21 March 2000 David Tuch, Head of Share Schemes at KPMG, said: ‘We are disappointed that the Chancellor has not used some of his war chest to reduce from five to three years the period before shares can be taken out tax-free under the new all-employee share plan. We also feel it is a shame that he has done nothing to deal with the potential NIC exposure where employees take out their shares within three years - although it is possible this will be dealt with as part of the review of NIC on unapproved options.
David Tuch added: ‘Although the Chancellor has again taken the opportunity to increase the number of employees who may participate in Enterprise Management Incentives, from ten to 15 (having already increased it from six) we would like him to have widened the class of companies which qualify.
