IR35 catches more highly skilled workers In Dragonfly Consultancy Limited v The Commissioners for Her Majesty and Revenue & Customs (2008), the High Court has held that the IR35 rules on personal service companies apply to the services of a highly skilled IT consultant particularly because the client would have been unlikely to accept an unfettered right of substitution.   When can you change your domicile?  We look at the recent case of Barlow Clowes International Ltd & Ors v Henwood [2008] EWCA Civ 577 which considers when a domicile of origin can be revived.   SAYE bonus rates to increase from 1 September 2008 The Treasury has raised the bonus rates payable on Save As You Earn (SAYE) schemes for employees who join an SAYE scheme after 1 September 2008.   Save As You Earn/Share Incentive Plans We take another look at the eligibility rules for SIPs and SAYE plans following changes to ITEPA 2003 to extend the scope to resident but not ordinarily resident employees and what changes you may need to make to your plan rules. Top

Listed companies FSA hint at increases in prudential capital requirements to curb city bonus culture Did the city bonus culture cause the crunch?  The chief executive of the FSA seemed to think so and hinted at tightening of prudential capital requirements to prevent it happening again.   EMI - are you missing out? HMRC figures show only a small minority of companies on the full list or traded on AIM have taken advantage of the great tax breaks offered by EMI, we suspect a lot more qualify so we look at how easy it is to meet the tests and what you can do with EMI if you meet them.

Unlisted companies Feature article: making an employee share market work Colin Buchanan and Partners Limited established an employee share market in 2004, we look at how it works and how it has transformed their shareholder base in less than 5 years.

Team news Annastacia Bertalli joined the UK employee incentives and benefits team in July 2008 as team co-ordinator.  Annastacia was previously with an Australian law firm. Top

Events Colin Kendon will be speaking at the Institute of Directors Conference "Transforming your business through employee share ownership".       The all-day conference will take place on 17 September 2008 at One Whitehall Place, London SW1Y and is organised in association with the ESOP Centre. To register and for more details, click here.        Colin will be speaking on "Making an employee share market work for a Private SME - a case study featuring Colin Buchanan and Partners Limited".  We have considerable experience of implementing these markets and the very successful Colin Buchanan market is featured in this edition of e-news.    Beatrice Chivers will be speaking at an ifs ProShare training day on "International Share Plans".   This training course will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Vintners Place, 68 Upper Thames Street, London EC4V 3BJ.  To register and for more details, click here.     We provide legal and tax advice to a number of international companies.  We work closely with share plan administrators to provide a seamless service to companies, as the line between technical legal and practical administrative issues can often be somewhat blurred.   Contact us   Colin Kendon colin.kendon@twobirds.com 020 7905 6312 Beatrice Chivers beatrice.chivers@twobirds.com 020 7982 6519   Top