Your Complete Guide To Irish Employee Share Plans

KEY EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT PROGRAMME Introduced at the beginning of 2018, the Key Employment Engagement Programme (KEEP) is a share options initiative designed to help SMEs tackle ongoing issues around skill shortages and staff retention. The logic of the scheme is that being able to offer targeted employee share ownership with tax incentives will enable SMEs to compete with larger companies in terms of attracting and then retaining key talent. This is the first scheme of its type introduced in the Republic of Ireland and, unsurprisingly, has experienced some “teething issues”, with the business sector making the case for changes almost from the moment it was introduced. The Finance Act 2018 sought to address concerns around limits linked to salary and the market value of grant options over shares, while Budget 2020 saw action taken around loosening eligibility rules – part-time employees can now avail and employee movement within an SME structured as a group of companies is also allowed for – but other concerns remain. It is hoped that the scheme will be further refined over time.