I have a company share save scheme where I pay money in to buy shares, the company then give me 1.89 times those shares so effectively I get nearly 3 shares for everyone I buy. However the shares are locked for a few years and require 4 to 5 years to avoid tax. So the question is would I be forced to sell these shares if I entered and IVA although I could make a loss? And would I have to stop paying into the scheme during the IVA? The obvious answer is yes, so that the money could be use for the IVA, however if left in the scheme for say 3 to 4 years then a greater number of shares would be available which could be used as a windfall to help pay back the creditors.
I am seeing this sort of thing cropping up more and more, and my personal view is that the shares need to be declared as an asset and realised for the benefit of creditors when they mature. In the meantime the purchase of further shares can either stop, or continue with creditors getting the full value of the maturity value of the purchased and matched shares.
I have dealt with two similar cases over the last couple of weeks - one where my client wished to stop the ongoing payments, and one where they wanted to continue the payments for the benefit of creditors - both cases were accepted.
we are 2 months into our IVA and my husband has company shares also. we weren't given an option to continue with them. We have to sell the eligible shares each year to go into the IVA and after december my husband is no longer able to buy any and the extra money over each month from not being in the share scheme will go into the IVA too- hope this helps a bit
