An Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) is a special form of employee benefit trust introduced by the Government in September 2014, in an attempt to encourage more employee ownership of businesses – think of it as a corporate structure similar to the John Lewis model.
The aim is to facilitate wider employee ownership, albeit via an indirect holding. There are significant incentives for shareholders setting up these structures in the form of very generous tax breaks, as well as the commercial benefits such as rewarding and retaining staff who are likely to have contributed to the success of the business to date.
