EOTs: When You Need a Solicitor and a Tax Advisor in the Same Room
Because selling your business to a trust isn’t a one-expert job.
If you’re considering selling your business to an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT), you’ve probably spoken to your accountant already. Or your solicitor. Or both—at different times.
Here’s our honest advice: get them talking to each other.
Because while an EOT can be an incredible route for succession—offering full capital gains tax relief, long-term cultural continuity, and a way to thank your team—it’s not something one professional can handle in isolation.
This is one of those moments where joined-up advice matters.
Why You Need Both
The EOT process is part tax planning, part share sale, part trust setup, and part succession strategy. That’s why you’ll need:
- A solicitor to draft the legal structure: the trust deed, the share sale agreement, the board and trustee framework, and any associated governance changes.
- A tax advisor to make sure the sale qualifies for the available reliefs, is viable from a cash flow perspective, and doesn’t leave you or the business with an unpleasant surprise later.
If either side is working blind, you’re more likely to end up with delays, extra costs, or a structure that doesn’t work quite as well as it should.
Early Advice = Smoother Process
We often work with clients right at the exploratory stage. These early chats typically cover:
- What a realistic sale price might look like
- Whether the company can afford to buy you out over time
- What you can (and can’t) do with the trust
- How the governance will work once you’re no longer the majority owner
If your accountant is already running some numbers, that’s the perfect time to bring in a solicitor to talk about structure. If you’ve started discussing the legal documents, it’s time to get your tax advisor looped in.
We don’t do turf wars. We do clarity.
But Isn’t This Just for Big Firms?
Nope. EOTs work brilliantly for small and mid-sized companies with:
- Solid profits
- A strong team
- Owners who care about what happens next
If you want to sell to your team without selling out, the EOT might be your best option. But it only works well when the professionals advising you are working well together.
If you would like to work together, reach out at TS Partners.