The Government has announced two changes to the tax-advantaged Company Share Option Plan (CSOP) scheme.

There’s currently a maximum employee share option limit based on the market value grant of £30,000. This will be increased to £60,000 for any new options granted from the 6th of April 2023. Existing options are unaffected by this change.

There will also be increased flexibility for share options granted from the 6th of April 2023, due to the removal of conditions around the class of shares used.

The CSOP scheme is available to most UK trading companies as, unlike the Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) share scheme, there is no size limit, and no restrictions over the nature of the business undertaken.