The European Commission announced on 15 May 2018 that it had approved the prolongation of State Aid Relief for Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) arrangements. The EU State Aid approval is stated to be valid until 2023, or if earlier, the date the UK ceases to be an EU member state.
The EU State Aid approval for EMI arrangements had expired on 6 April 2018. Shortly before the expiry, HMRC stated that EMI options granted after 6 April 2018 "may not be eligible" for EMI tax reliefs, although it confirmed that EMI options granted before 6 April 2018 would continue to benefit from the tax advantages.
Although HMRC has not confirmed the position since the European Commission announcement, the intention appears to be that EMI options granted both after the announcement and in the period between 6 April 2018 and 15 May 2018 will benefit from the tax reliefs applying to EMI options.
HMRC noted in their April Bulletin that they would provide a further update in due course and we expect that will confirm the position.
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