6 Assume today’s date is 16 April 2005.
Henry, aged 48, is the managing director of Happy Home Ltd, an unquoted UK company specialising in interior
design. He is wealthy in his own right and is married to Helen, who is 45 years old. They have two children – Stephen,
who is 19, and Sally who is 17.
As part of his salary, Henry was given 3,000 shares in Happy Home Ltd with an option to acquire a further 10,000
shares. The options were granted on 15 July 2003, shortly after the company started trading, and were not part of
an approved share option scheme. The free shares were given to Henry on the same day.
The exercise price of the share options was set at the then market value of ￡1·00 per share. The options are not
capable of being exercised after 10 years from the date of grant. The company has been successful, and the current
value of the shares is now ￡14·00 per share. Another shareholder has offered to buy the shares at their market value,
so Henry exercised his share options on 14 April 2005 and will sell the shares next week, on 20 April 2005.
With the company growing in size, Henry wishes to recruit high quality staff, but the company lacks the funds to pay
them in cash. Henry believes that giving new employees the chance to buy shares in the company would help recruit
staff, as they could share in the growth in value of Happy Home Ltd. Henry has heard that there is a particular share
scheme that is suitable for small, fast growing companies. He would like to obtain further information on how such
a scheme would work.
Henry has accumulated substantial assets over the years. The family house is owned jointly with Helen, and is worth
￡650,000. Henry has a ￡250,000 mortgage on the house. In addition, Henry has liquid assets worth ￡340,000
and Helen has shares in quoted companies currently worth ￡125,000. Henry has no forms of insurance, and believes
he should make sure that his wealth and family are protected. He is keen to find out what options he should be
considering.
Required:
(a) (i) State how the gift of the 3,000 shares in Happy Home Ltd was taxed. (1 mark)
