Draft Legislation: Allowing existing EMI and CSOP agreements to become exercisable if the shares are immediately sold at a PISCES trading event

The ATT has commented on draft legislation, issued on 21 July 2025, which proposes allowing amendments to existing Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) and Company Share Option Plan (CSOP) agreements to permit them to become exercisable upon a sale during a Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES) trading event (‘the draft legislation’).

The aim of the draft legislation is to allow amendments to be made to existing agreements, without losing the tax advantages offered by the CSOP and EMI schemes, subject to certain conditions being met. 

In the ATT's response, we welcomed the draft legislation. However, we raised concerns about the requirement that a share option must be granted under a CSOP or EMI scheme at any time on or before the day on which the Finance Bill 2025-26 is passed. This may create an arbitrary cutoff date at a time when awareness of PISCES is low. We urge the government to consider extending this date until PISCES becomes a permanent regime, currently expected in 2030.