Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003

Establishment of trustees

71 (1) The plan must provide for the establishment of a body of trustees consisting of persons resident in the United Kingdom (“the trustees”).

(2) The plan must provide that the trustees are required—

(a) in the case of free or matching shares, to acquire shares and appropriate them to employees in accordance with the plan,

(b) in the case of partnership shares, to apply partnership share money in acquiring shares on behalf of employees in accordance with the plan, and

(c) in the case of dividend shares, to apply cash dividends in acquiring shares on behalf of participants in accordance with the plan.

(3) The functions of the trustees with respect to shares held by them must be regulated by a trust (“the plan trust”)—

(a) which is constituted under the law of a part of the United Kingdom, and

(b) the terms of which are embodied in an instrument which complies with the requirements of this Part of this Schedule (“the trust instrument”).

(4) The trust instrument must not contain any terms which are neither essential nor reasonably incidental to complying with the requirements of this Part of this Schedule.

(5) The trust instrument may contain terms that—

(a) define who is a professional trustee and who is a non-professional trustee;

(b) require the trustees to include at least one person who is a professional trustee and at least two who are non-professional trustees;

(c) require at least half of the non-professional trustees to have been, before being appointed as trustees, selected in accordance with a specified process of selection;

(d) require the trustees so selected to be persons who are employees of the company or, in the case of a group plan, of a participating company.

(6) The terms mentioned in sub-paragraph (5) are to be regarded as reasonably incidental to complying with the requirements of this Part of this Schedule for the purposes of sub-paragraph (4).