Owner-Managed Business Tax Planning: Myths, Traps & Opportunities

What the course will cover:

Part 1. The Beginning: Getting the foundations right

The right decisions at the outset can create valuable tax planning opportunities. The wrong ones may prove expensive to correct.

• Getting the share structure right from the beginning — ownership, voting rights and future flexibility.
• Understanding how initial ownership arrangements may affect the eventual disposal of the business.
• Establishing appropriate tax and corporate compliance processes.
• Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) — eligibility, tax advantages and common pitfalls.
• Other tax-efficient arrangements for incentivising and rewarding key individuals.
• Planning ahead for changes in ownership and an eventual exit.

Part 2. The Middle: Managing growth and changing interests

As a business develops, the interests of its shareholders, employees and management may change. Tax planning needs to develop with them.

• Tax-efficient employee remuneration and incentive arrangements.
• Managing employment costs while retaining and rewarding key people.
• Dealing with changing shareholder interests, including the introduction and departure of shareholders.
• The tax implications of reorganising shareholdings and ownership structures.
• Balancing tax planning opportunities against commercial and compliance risks.
• Recognising when existing arrangements should be reviewed rather than simply continued.

Part 3. The End: Disposal, succession and reinvestment

When the owners finally decide to sell, retire or pass on their business, earlier decisions can have substantial financial consequences.

This part of the course will examine:

Business Asset Disposal Relief (BADR)

• The principal qualifying conditions and limitations.
• How share ownership, employment and trading status can affect eligibility.
• Common traps that can prevent relief being available when the business is sold.
• Planning ahead to preserve potential relief.

Business Property Relief and succession

• The role of Business Property Relief in passing business interests to the next generation.
• Qualifying conditions, restrictions and potential pitfalls.
• Planning for retirement, succession and the transfer of family business wealth.

The use of trusts

• When trusts may be appropriate for business succession and wealth planning.
• The potential tax advantages and limitations.
• How trusts can fit within wider family and business objectives.

Reinvestment opportunities

• Tax planning considerations following a successful business disposal.
• Reinvestment strategies and their potential advantages.
• Balancing immediate tax liabilities against longer-term financial and succession objectives.

The underlying theme is that successful tax planning should not begin when a purchaser appears. It should be considered throughout the life of the business.

What will you take away?

By the end of the course, participants should be better able to:

• Identify important tax planning opportunities throughout the life of an owner-managed business.
• Recognise potential problems arising from share structures, employee incentives and changing ownership arrangements.
• Understand the principal requirements and limitations of EMI, BADR and Business Property Relief.
• Identify opportunities involving trusts, succession and reinvestment.
• Help clients avoid decisions that could create substantial tax liabilities when a business is eventually sold or transferred.

Who should attend?

This course is particularly relevant to:

• Corporate tax advisers and accountants.
• Corporate and commercial lawyers.
• Private client and trusts lawyers.
• Advisers to owner-managed and family-owned businesses.
• Corporate finance and business advisory professionals.
• Employee share incentive specialists.
• Wealth management and succession-planning professionals.

Can't attend live?

Every booking includes access to the full course recording and course materials, so you and your colleagues can watch the presentation afterwards at a time that suits you.

A certificate of attendance is available on request.

If you would like several colleagues to attend but do not yet know all their names, simply book with one named delegate now and add the others later.

Important Notes about Booking

Payment can be made by credit or debit card, or alternatively by invoice. The option to pay by invoice is below the pay by card option in the booking form.

If you do not have the complete list of who will be attending, you can book for those you know will be attending and add the others at a later date.

Please ensure that, when booking, you enter colleagues' email addresses entirely correctly, as failure to do so may mean that they do not receive joining instructions.

The Legal Training Consultancy

The Legal Training Consultancy is a full-service training consultancy with a large portfolio of conferences, courses and trainers. Over the years, we have been responsible for putting together a vast number of law and tax-related conferences, webinars, seminars, videos and e-learning modules — altogether well over 2,200.