- in United States
- with readers working within the Transport industries
Further to our VC and Founder's Insights Article published on 17 November 2025, the Treasury has today announced changes to Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) eligibility. We have updated our Article to account for these changes.
The changes are expected to be enacted from the start of the new tax year (April 2026) via the Finance Bill 2025 - 2026. In summary:
- The employee limit has been increased to 500 employees (from 250 employees previously).
- The issuing company's gross assets limit has been raised to £120 million (from £30 million previously).
- The total limit of share options permitted to be issued by a company has been increased to £6 million (from £3 million previously).
- The maximum holding limit has been extended to 15 years (from 10 years previously), which will include existing EMI options.
Furthermore, with effect from April 2027, the EMI notification requirement will be removed.
The proposed changes are a move in the right direction in permitting a wider range of companies to issue tax-advantaged EMI share options, in particular, the increase to the issuing company's gross assets threshold is a significant improvement that allows scale-ups to access EMI options to attract and retain talent. The personal limit on EMI options (£250,000 per employee at the time of grant in any three-year period, based on unrestricted market value) has not been increased, though this should not pose a problem for the vast majority of EMI option issuing companies.
Read our updated VC and Founder's Insights Article here.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
