George Osborne introduced the Employee Shareholder Status (ESS), or shares for rights, relief in the midst of controversy about the merits of encouraging employees to surrender statutory employment rights in return for potentially nebulous tax reliefs.

Stephen Woodhouse, Partner at Pett Fraklin, and Charlotte Fleck, Associate at Pett Franklin, hosted a webinar on 5 November 2015 to examine the use of Employee Shareholder Status (ESS) relief – circumstances being different to those envisaged when the relief was introduced. Also covered were the challenges that have been highlighted since its introduction, as well as the opportunities the plan offers.