Offshore Employee Benefit Trusts
An offshore employee benefit trust administered by HBOS EES, an independent trustee, offers the sponsoring company the ability to warehouse shares in a tax efficient jurisdiction until required and hedge outstanding awards and related tax and social security costs. The HBOS EES trustees have 25 years of experience in trust and executive plan administration from our office in Jersey.
The offshore office covers a full range of trust, company and plan administration, including:
- Employee benefit trusts
- Executive long term incentive plans
- Option plans (approved and unapproved)
- Deferred bonus plans involving shares or managed funds
- Cash Plans
- Employee Share Purchase Plans
- Co-investment plans
- Performance share plans
Additional uses for offshore employee benefit trusts include:
- Creating broader employee participation pre-IPO (Initial Public Offering) - An offshore employee benefit trust is a tax efficient and flexible structure to hold assets for employees prior to an IPO taking place.
- Pension top-ups and other deferred compensation arrangements - Executives may choose to allocate funds which exceed the annual allowance for pension contributions to an offshore trust in order to mitigate tax.
- Vested Share Account - In an offshore employee benefit trust structure the independent trustee may be appointed to hold shares in a nominee capacity post vesting on behalf of participants to meet executive shareholding requirements imposed by shareholders or to provide a voluntary tax-efficient warehouse pre-sale.
- Internal market - Employee benefit trusts are frequently used to provide a share market for employees in private companies to realise value post vesting/exercise. Funded by the sponsoring company, the trust purchases shares from plan participants at an agreed price when the "window" opens.
For further information on offshore employee benefit trusts, please contact us.
