Key Documents
As part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda, the Government is taking steps to make it easier for employers to provide incentives to their employees through Employee Share Schemes (ESS). In particular, the Government has committed to:
- limit the requirement for disclosure documents given to employees under an eligible ESS and lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to be made available to the public; and
- consult on options to amend the disclosure requirements to make ESS more user-friendly.
To fulfil the first of these commitments, the Government intends to introduce legislation which will, among other things, remove the requirement for ASIC to place eligible ESS disclosure documents on public register by amending the Corporations Act 2001. Stakeholders are invited to comment on the exposure draft legislation until 2 November 2016
A consultation paper on options to make ESS more user friendly is also available at the Treasury website. Stakeholders are invited to comment on the consultation paper by lodging a submission online. Submisions for this consultation will close on 7 December 2016.