Autumn Budget 2025 finally put an end to months of speculation, but what were the major announcements for businesses? We've picked out three areas of particular interest below:
EMI limits increased
From April 2026, access to tax-advantaged EMI options will be significantly expanded by increasing key eligibility thresholds:
- the overall limit on company options will double from £3 million to £6 million
- the gross assets threshold will quadruple from £30 million to £120 million
- the employee headcount limit will increase from 250 to 500 employees.
The limit on the exercise period of EMI options will also be increased from 10 to 15 years. Existing qualifying options granted before April 2026 (which have not been exercised or expired) can also be amended to extend their life without losing their tax-advantaged status.
These changes create an exciting opportunity for growing companies, including those who have previously outgrown EMI, to offer attractive, tax-advantaged incentives to their employees.
Autumn Budget 2025: key updates to employee incentive schemes contains further details on this and other employee incentives announcements.
Backing the UK's entrepreneurs
Recognising the potential of the UK's start-up ecosystem, the government launched the most comprehensive review of tax support for entrepreneurs in years, as well as publishing its Entrepreneurship Prospectus (setting out its ambitions for founders).
In the meantime, the annual, lifetime and gross assets limits for the EIS and VCT schemes will be doubled from April 2026. The new limits are set out in the table below. This is, however, tempered by the reduction in the upfront VCT income tax relief from 30% to 20%.
|
Current rate |
New limit from April 2026 |
| Annual company investment limit |
£5 million
(£10 million for KICs) |
£10 million
(£20 million for KICs) |
| Lifetime company limit |
£12 million
(£20 million for KICs) |
£24 million
(£40 million for KICs) |
| Gross assets tests |
£15 million before share issue;
£16 million after share issue |
£30 million before share issue;
£35 million after share issue |
Stamp taxes on shares
The government announced a significant step in the long-awaited modernisation of stamp taxes on shares, which ultimately aims to replace both stamp duty and SDRT with a single 'securities transfer charge'. The changes proposed enable the government to test a new digital service for self-assessing and paying stamp duty and SDRT.
In addition, a new exemption from the 0.5% SDRT charge on agreements to transfer securities of companies has been introduced from 27 November 2025. It applies to companies that are newly listed on UK regulated markets and covers a period of three years from listing. This aims to make the UK a more attractive place to list.
Here to help
Please get in touch with a member of our Tax and Employee Incentives team if you need assistance or any further information.
