Employment related securities bulletins give information and updates on developments relating to employment related securities (ERS), including the tax-advantaged employee share schemes.
HMRC publishes employment related securities bulletins when:
- articles or updates are available
- HMRC has any item to bring to your attention quickly
If you operate an employee share scheme, the window to file annual returns is approaching. As a reminder you have an obligation to:
- register any new schemes established within the tax year 2021 to 2022, by 6 July 2022
- file annual returns electronically for the 2021 to 2022 tax year by 6 July 2022
Filing returns after the annual deadlines will result in penalties.
If you have a reasonable excuse for missing the deadline you can submit an appeal to HMRC using the address at the at the end of this bulletin.
Returns must filed annually
Where there has been no reportable event, a nil return must be submitted.
Where a scheme has ceased, record the final event date on the Employment related securities online service and file a return for that year. See Employment related securities bulletin 39.
Check full guidance on how to submit reports.
Reviewing your existing schemes
If you’re operating a tax advantaged share scheme you must review it regularly. This is to ensure that legislative requirements continue to be met where either:
- alterations to key features of the schemes have been made
- events have taken place that could disqualify options from tax relief
Tax advantaged share schemes include:
- Share Incentive Plan
- Company Share Option scheme
- Save As You Earn scheme
- Enterprise Management Incentive scheme
Companies must provide details to HMRC of any alterations or variations as part of the annual return process within the Employment related securities online service.
You can find guidance at:
- ETASSUM27140 Schedule 2 Share Incentive Plan (SIP): Notification & Enquiries: Alterations
- ETASSUM46140 Schedule 4 Company Share Option Plan (CSOP): Notification & Enquiries: Alterations
- ETASSUM37080 Schedule 3 SAYE option schemes: Option Notifications: Alterations
- ETASSUM57050 Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI): Taxation of EMI options: Tax consequences of exercise of an option following a disqualifying event
Please contact HMRC using the address at the end of the bulletin if you need:
- to make a disclosure
- advice on whether an alteration or event has caused the legislative requirements to not be met
Employment related securities return templates must not be altered in any way.
Make sure you include the relevant share scheme reference number, if you have one, when contacting share schemes. We may have to return your post if the share scheme reference has not been provided. See Employment related securities Bulletin 25 on how to identify your share scheme reference number.
More information about common employment related securities issues and top things to remember can be found in Employment related securities Bulletin 26.
Send enquiries by post to:
Charities, Savings and International 1
HMRC
BX9 1AU
Send enquiries by email to:
If you need to disclose sensitive information, and have concerns about sending this by email or post, you should send a short email:
- without any sensitive data
- with details of how we can contact you
We’ll get back to you as soon as possible to arrange an alternative.
HMRC will store any correspondence you send securely for information purposes only.
Make sure you include the relevant share scheme reference number, if you have one, when you contact us about share schemes. If you haven’t provided the share scheme reference HMRC may not be able to respond to or answer your query.
You can find more information on how to identify your share scheme reference number in Employment securities Bulletin 25.
Changes to HMRC email addresses
We’ve been making changes to our email addresses in HMRC. You may have noticed that instead of our email addresses ending in @hmrc.gsi.gov.uk, they’ll end @hmrc.gov.uk. Any emails that you send to our old email addresses will still redirect to us.
Contact HMRC about employment related securities bulletins
If you have any questions, feedback or suggestions for future articles you should email shareschemes@hmrc.gov.uk.
