Improvements to employee share schemes announced

The Government has announced it intends to introduce legislation to improve the ability of small businesses to offer employee share schemes by simplifying the current regulatory framework, and reducing the time and cost burden for businesses by (amongst other things):

•  increasing the value limit of eligible financial products that can be offered in a 12-month period from $5,000 per employee to $10,000 per employee;
• creating an exemption for disclosure, licensing, advertising and on-sale obligations in the Corporations Act; and
• allowing small businesses to offer (in most instances) employee share schemes without publicly disclosing commercially sensitive financial information