Finance Act 1991

38 Employee share schemes: non-discrimination

(1) The Taxes Act 1988 shall be amended as follows.

(2) In Part III of Schedule 9 (requirements applicable to savings-related share option schemes) in paragraphs 19(b) and 20 for “pensionable age” there shall be substituted “the specified age”.

(3) In Schedule 10 (further provisions relating to profit sharing schemes) in sub-paragraph (b) of paragraph 2 and in sub-paragraph (c)(ii) of paragraph 3 for “pensionable age” there shall be substituted “the relevant age”, and at the end of each of those paragraphs there shall be inserted— “In this paragraph, the reference to the relevant age is a reference, in the case of a scheme approved before the day on which the Finance Act 1991 was passed, to pensionable age and, in the case of a scheme approved on or after that day, to the specified age.

(4) In section 187(2) (definitions for the purposes of provisions relating to employee share schemes) after the definition of “shares” there shall be inserted—

““specified age”, in relation to a scheme, means the age specified in pursuance of paragraph 8A of Schedule 9 as the specified age for the purposes of the scheme;”.

(5) In Part II of Schedule 9 (requirements generally applicable to employee share schemes) after paragraph 8 there shall be inserted—

“8A(1) In the case of a savings-related share option scheme or a profit sharing scheme, the scheme must specify what age is to be the specified age for the purposes of the scheme.

(2) The age specified—

(a) must be the same for men and women, and

(b) must be not less than 60 and not more than 75.”

(6) Subsections (2) and (5) above shall have effect in relation to a scheme not approved before the day on which this Act is passed.