Employment Related Securities Bulletin 49

HMRC have released their March edition of the Employment Related Securities (ERS) Bulletin. This is our enhanced version with links to our detailed guides.

Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) changes

For options granted or exercised on or after 6 April 2023, the Spring Finance Bill 2023 introduced three changes which will:

• Remove the requirement to state, on the option agreement, the restrictions that the underlying shares will be subject to.
• Remove the requirement for the employing company to declare that the employee has signed a working time declaration when issued an EMI option. Note that the working time declaration requirement remains.

For EMI options granted after 6 April 2023:

• The EMI options will need to be notified by 6 July following the tax year of issue. This will extend the current 92-day time limit.

See Budget 2023: Share Options from Employment

EMI call for evidence responses

• HMRC have released their Response to the Enterprise Management Incentives call for evidence.

April changes to ERS reporting templates

From 6 April 2023, the ERS reporting templates have been updated. 

• The new templates should be used for the year ending 5 April 2023.
• The old templates should be used for prior years.
• The new templates change some column names and make the provision of some information mandatory.
• HMRC guidance has been updated accordingly.

See Employment-Related Securities: Reporting which includes a summary of the changes and a guide to complete EMI and Other ERS Returns.

Call for evidence Share Incentive Plan and Save as You Earn

• A call for evidence exploring opportunities to improve and simplify the scheme will be released soon.

Useful guides on this topic

Employee Shares: Employment-Related Securities & Share Schemes
What are the tax consequences when a company gives shares to an employee or director? What are employment-related securities? What is best: shares or share options? How do you set up a share scheme? 

Employment-Related Securities: Reporting
If an employer gives shares to an employee or sets up a tax-advantaged share or share option scheme, the benefit is taxed within the Employment-Related Securities (ERS) regime. The employer will then have a requirement to register a share scheme with HMRC and file an annual return by 6 July following the tax year-end.

External links

Employment Related Securities Bulletin 49