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HMRC have commissioned Ipsos-MORI, an independent research company, to carry out comprehensive research into tax-advantaged Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI).

The research will examine the experiences of employers and employees in offering or holding EMI share options, and their perceptions of the effects of EMI on employee behaviour and company performance. The aim of the research is to enable HMRC to assess whether any reported effects suggest that EMI has met its policy objectives, namely:

• to recruit skilled staff to small, high-risk companies;
•  to retain skilled staff in these companies; and
•  to encourage growth of small companies.

This is the second qualitative study of EMI undertaken on behalf of HMRC - the previous one was carried out in 2003.

The initial stages of the research have already been completed. The first stage, between February and March 2007, consisted of cognitive interviews with employers offering EMI share options, employees who hold, or have previously held, share options; and employers who do not offer EMI options (the ‘control’ group). The purpose of this initial stage was to examine the feasibility of researching the target population and to develop suitable survey questions.

The mainstage fieldwork for the EMI Survey will now be conducted between June and July 2007. Employers in companies offering EMI options will be randomly selected for interview from HMRC databases.

Employees who hold, or have previously held, EMI options will be randomly selected from HMRC databases and will be sent a self-completion questionnaire which should take no longer than fifteen minutes to complete. The research will aim to secure a thousand completed employee questionnaires.

A final report will be published later this year.

Link

HMRC: Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) Survey 2007