Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 section 549

Application of this Chapter

Section 549 defines the scope of Chapter 11, which deals with when trustees of an employee benefit trust should or should not be treated as associates of an individual beneficiary for the purposes of the "no material interest" requirement in four tax-advantaged share schemes.

• The chapter applies where an individual ("B") has a beneficial interest in a company's shares or obligations through an employee benefit trust, and the question arises whether the trust's trustees should be regarded as B's associates for the "no material interest" test
• The rules apply across four specific tax-advantaged share schemes: Share Incentive Plans (SIPs), Save As You Earn (SAYE) option schemes, Company Share Option Plans (CSOPs), and Enterprise Management Incentives (EMIs)
• Where the attribution rules in sections 552 to 554 apply, B or B's associate is treated as the beneficial owner of a specified percentage of the company's ordinary share capital on a particular date
• The term "associate" follows the close companies definition in section 448 of the Corporation Tax Act 2010, but specifically excludes the trust's trustees from being treated as associates solely because B has an interest in the company's shares or obligations held within the trust