Suzy is one of the UK’s leading experts on employee share incentive schemes and executive remuneration issues. She qualified as a solicitor in 1996 and since then has held senior positions at Garretts, Allen & Overy and Olswang. She has also supported the Office of Tax Simplification as a policy advisor and is a contributing author with the share incentive team at LexisNexis.
Suzy offers expert commercial advice on the full spectrum of employee share incentives and executive remuneration, based on her considerable depth of experience in this highly technical and heavily regulated area. Her clients have ranged from individuals and start-ups to FTSE 100 companies and multinationals. Suzy’s specialised experience has allowed her to gain an understanding of the commercial issues faced by companies of all sizes as they develop and their corresponding needs in structuring and operating their employee share incentives.
Suzy has also advised on the share incentives issues for companies undergoing all forms of corporate transactions, including IPOs, takeovers, schemes of arrangement, MBOs, subsidiary and asset sales, assisting through the transaction process and also in the design of future incentive arrangements post-deal.
The different types of share schemes and bonus arrangements Suzy advises on include:
- all HMRC tax-advantaged share plans and EMI option schemes
- growth share schemes
- jointly owned share incentive plans
- long-term incentive schemes and annual and deferred bonus schemes
- share options and stock purchase programmes
- conditional share awards and restricted stock
- phantom awards and
- other bespoke tax efficient structures
Suzy Giele provides employment tax advice in relation to share incentive arrangements including:
- tax planning for both employers and employees
- compliance with payroll tax requirements and P11D issues and liaising with HMRC on behalf of companies in relation to this
- taxation of termination payments and benefits in kind
- current HMRC policy in relation to employee tax and HMRC reporting requirements
- tax treatment in respect of internationally mobile employees and consultants providing services through personal companies and
- treatment of managers’ shares in private equity arrangements
In relation to employee benefit trusts Suzy advises on:
- their establishment, funding, ongoing operation and termination
- disguised remuneration considerations and appropriate documenting of arrangements between company and trustee
- statutory tax-advantaged employee-ownership trusts
- use of trust structures to optimise tax efficiency of share awards
- breach of trust issues and exercise of trustee discretion and
- impact of corporate transactions on trust arrangements and use of trust structure for post-deal incentives
Suzy Giele works alongside corporate teams to advise on company law, securities law and regulatory issues and corporate governance best practice considerations. She also provides advice and support on the share incentives considerations of corporate transactions. Suzy also works with employment lawyers to help manage the hiring or dismissal of employees where share incentive and executive remuneration schemes are in play.
Since joining EM Law, Suzy has advised several SMEs on the design and implementation of EMI option schemes for key employees and a well-known name in the international development sector on the design and implementation of employee benefit and executive remuneration schemes for a significant number of staff. She has also advised several individuals on their rights under options that they have been granted.
