Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003

All-employee nature of plan

8 (1) The plan must provide that every employee who—

(a) meets the requirements of Part 3 of this Schedule (eligibility of individuals) in relation to an award of shares under the plan, and

(b) is a UK resident taxpayer,

is eligible to participate in the award, and is invited to do so.

(2) An employee is a UK resident taxpayer if the employee’s earnings from the employment by reference to which the employee meets the employment requirement are (or would be if there were any) general earnings to which section 15 or 21 applies (earnings for year when employee resident and ordinarily resident in the UK).

(3) The plan must not contain any feature which has or is likely to have the effect of discouraging any description of employees within sub-paragraph (1) from participating in an award of shares under the plan.

(4) Sub-paragraph (3) does not apply to any provision required or authorised by this Schedule.

(5) The plan may provide that an employee who—

(a) meets the requirements of Part 3 of this Schedule (eligibility of individuals) in relation to an award of shares under the plan, but

(b) is not a UK resident taxpayer (see sub-paragraph (2)),

is eligible to participate in the award, and may be invited to do so.

(6) For the purposes of the SIP code an individual is a “qualifying employee”, in relation to an award of shares, if the individual—

(a) is eligible to participate in it under sub-paragraph (1), or

(b) is eligible to participate in it under sub-paragraph (5) and has been invited to do so.