Our lives are moving more online and sadly this has resulted in a rise in financial scams. A recent poll of over 2000 individuals by YouGov and Lloyds Bank found 10% of them had been the victim of a financial scam. Property transactions are particularly vulnerable, with high values involved and often time is of the essence. There are numerous cases where solicitors and sellers have been duped into sending the sales proceeds to fraudsters, or buyers have paid the purchase money to someone who was not the real owner.
Locking in your key employees is always a balancing act between work life balance, remuneration packages and showing employees they are valued and part of the very fabric of the organisation.
One of the most effective ways of imbedding employees into your business is through capital ownership, which provides a shared goal towards exit and increasing value.
This is a powerful way to tell a key employee of their value to the business and can create an “in this together” attitude.
Such a structure creates rewards for all on a fair basis through the eventual sale of the business.
One of the most popular types of employee share option schemes with SMEs is enterprise management incentives (‘EMI’).
EMI schemes are a popular way of attracting and retaining employees and they can provide significant tax benefits.
Back in 2000, legislation was introduced to ensure individuals who operated as independent contractors but who worked like employees, paid broadly the same tax and national insurance contributions as employees. The ‘off-payroll working rules’ are commonly referred to as IR35. With around 900,000 contractors operating in this way, this legislation affected a not insignificant part of the workforce.
What do Riverford, the organic vegetable box company, Richer Sounds, the hi-fi chain and Turleys, the planning consultancy have in common? Well, as from May 2019, they are or are about to become employee owned businesses with Julian Richer being the latest business owner to announce he is transferring 60% of his shareholding into an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT).
Proselytising is where someone preaches about religion with a view to converting other people to that religion. The Court of Appeal has recently examined when a dismissal for proselytising can be fair.