There are a number of government approved share schemes which offer tax advantages to employees. The approved schemes are Share Incentive Plans (SIPs), Save As You Earn (SAYE) schemes, Company Share Option Plans (CSOPs) and Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) schemes.

The deadline for submitting the online employment related securities annual return for the tax year 2022-23 is 6 July 2023. If a return remained outstanding after this date, then an automatic late filing penalty of £100 will be issued. If the return remains outstanding on 6 October 2023 a further automatic penalty of £300 will be issued. There is an additional penalty of £300 if the return is still outstanding after 6 months i.e., on 6 January 2024.

Even if a share scheme operator has received and paid the initial penalty, they must still submit an end of year or nil return to meet their filing obligations.

Employers that don’t submit annual returns on-time run the risk that they and /or their employees may lose any tax advantages from the scheme.