Taxation consequences of providing shares to employees through a trust

Abstract

People make a company. Their expertise and talents, efficiency and job performance determine the company‘s profitability and growth. The long-term retention of employees is of the utmost importance, as these employees have a wealth of knowledge about the company, its industry and the products or services being sold. Businesses have created plans to retain employees for a maximum period of time. These ideas include cash bonuses, phantom share schemes, and providing the employee with shares in the business. This study will look at such ideas in general, and specifically investigate the different ways of providing employees with shares in the business. There are different ways of providing the employee with shares in a business. This can include loans (including interest-free loans) to the employee from the employer, loans to the employee from a financial institution, employee share ownership plans, company share option plans and providing the employee with shares in the business through an employee share trust. Each of these methods attracts certain taxes such as income tax, capital gains tax and secondary tax on companies or dividend tax. The aim of this study is to use a case study approach, critically analysing an anonymous company providing its employees with shares in the company through an employee share trust, and will specifically investigate the different tax consequences of each transaction taking place in the trust AFRIKAANS : Werknemers is 'n maatskappy se belangrikste bate. 'n Maatskappy se winsgewendheid en groei word deur sy werknemers se kennis, doeltreffendheid en werksprestasie bepaal. Dit is vir 'n maatskappy van kritieke belang om sy werknemers vir so lank as moontlik te behou, aangesien hierdie werknemers oor kosbare kennis besit rakende die maatskappy, die bedryf waarin die maatskappy besigheid doen en die produkte of dienste wat die maatskappy bemark. Talle maatskappy het skemas bewerkstellig om hulle werknemers vir so lank as moontlik te behou. Dit behels onder andere kontantbonusse, fiktiewe aandeleskemas en die verkryging van aandele in die maatskappy deur die werknemer. Hierdie studie ondersoek sodanige skemas in die algemeen, en fokus spesifiek op werknemers wat aandele in 'n maatskappy bekom. Werknemers kan aandele in die maatskappy op verskillende wyses bekom. Hierdie wyses sluit in lenings (insluitend rentevrye lenings) van die maatskappy aan die werknemer, lenings aan die werknemer van 'n finansiële instelling, aandeleskemas, opsies om aandele in 'n maatskappy te koop, en die verskaffing van aandele aan die werknemer deur 'n werknemer-aandeletrust. Elkeen van hierdie opsies het spesifieke belastinggevolge, insluitend inkomstebelasting, kapitaalwinsbelasting, en sekondêre belasting op maatskappye of dividendbelasting. Die doel van hierdie studie is om 'n spesifieke gevallestudie van 'n annonieme maatskappye te ontleed, waar die maatskappy aandele aan sy werknemers deur 'n werknemer-aandeletrust verskaf het, en sal in detail na die belastinggevolge van elke aksie in die trust te kyk. Copyright 2011, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. Please cite as follows: Fouche, C 2011, Taxation consequences of providing shares to employees through a trust, MCom dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03262012-153458 / > F12/4/187/gm