Yes — for a small limited company looking to retain a key hire, EMI is usually the best-value option available. The tax position is the headline attraction: your developer pays no Income Tax or National Insurance on exercise, provided the option was granted at market value and the scheme conditions are met, and the company gets a corporation tax deduction when the options are exercised. Note the rules were refreshed from 6 April 2026, so the company limits are now gross assets of £120 million or less, fewer than 500 full-time employees, and unexercised options worth no more than £6 million — most small companies fit comfortably. The company must also be an independent trading company, and employees must meet the working-time condition. Watch the notification deadline carefully: for options granted now you must tell HMRC by 6 July following the tax year of grant (grants before 6 April 2024 had a 92-day deadline), and missing it can cost you the tax relief entirely — from 6 April 2027 the separate notification will instead be replaced by reporting in the end-of-year return. The main hassle is the set-up: agree the market value with HMRC's Shares and Assets Valuation and get the option agreement drafted properly before grant, because a disqualifying error is expensive to fix afterwards. For one key developer, though, the cost is modest relative to the tax saving.
