Employee Share Schemes

The Government has announced proposals to improve the ability of small businesses to offer employee share schemes to help them attract, retain and motivate employees and grow their businesses.

The current regulatory framework is complex and fragmented, and ultimately discourages some businesses from offering employee share schemes.

This consultation paper seeks feedback on proposals to simplify and extend the current regulatory regime for employee share schemes by:

• consolidating exemptions and class order relief from disclosure, licensing, hawking, advertising and other obligations under the Corporations Act 2001;
• increasing the value limit of eligible financial products that can be offered by unlisted companies in a 12 month period from $5,000 per employee to $10,000 per employee;
• expanding relief for unlisted companies to include contribution plans, where an employee can make a monetary contribution to acquire eligible financial products; and
• allowing small businesses to offer employee share schemes without publicly disclosing commercially sensitive financial information in lodged disclosure documents, unless they are otherwise obligated to do so.

Feedback received through submissions will be used to inform the development of legislation.