Autumn Statement 2013: The government is to provide an annual exemption from income tax on bonuses or equivalent payments on amounts up to £3,600 paid to employees of organisations that are indirectly employee-owned.
This is part of a package of measures for the government to provide an additional £25 million to support employee ownership, announced by Chancellor George Osborne in the Autumn Statement 2013.
Iain Hasdell, chief executive officer of the Employee Ownership Association (EOA), said: ”The EOA has been campaigning for increased support for strong [organisations] which can provide great products and services over the long term.
”Employee-owned [organisations] are very much part of this long-term agenda now, but could, and should, play an even bigger role.
”Employee ownership contributes more than £30 billion to UK GDP [gross domestic product] each year. The economic benefits of employee ownership in terms of productivity, innovation and the wellbeing of the workforce are incontestable.
”Employee ownership, with its very high levels of productivity, offers massive potential for the UK to get to grips with its alarming productivity gap.”
The 2013 Autumn Statement also set out plans to increase the maximum annual value of shares an employee can acquire with tax advantages under share incentive plans (Sips) and doubled the sharesave contribution limit.
