HMRC's Employment-related Securities Service | Further EMI simplification measure
Published on 17th Jan 2024
Extension to notification deadline for EMI options granted on or after 6 April 2024, and a reminder to companies from HMRC to save copies of information uploaded to the Employment-Related Securities Service
Measures to simplify the process for granting tax-advantaged enterprise management incentive (EMI) options were introduced in April 2023, with a further simplification measure to follow for EMI options granted on or after 6 April 2024.
From 6 April 2024, the deadline for notifying the grant of an EMI option is to be extended from the current 92 days following grant to the 6 July following the end of the tax year. HMRC is expected to publish updated guidance, forms and returns in the spring (most likely by updating their Submit an EMI notification page).
Separately, HMRC has updated a number of its gov.uk pages to remind companies that "Before you submit your employment-related securities return or notification, you need to save a copy of it for your own records. This is because the online service will not save the details and you will not be able to access them again."
The need to take screenshots is important so that companies can demonstrate:
- that they have correctly notified the grant of EMI options within the applicable time period (within 92 days of the date of grant for EMI options granted prior to 6 April 2024, and by 6 July following the end of the relevant tax year for EMI options granted on or after 6 April 2024); and
- that they have complied with their annual reporting obligations in respect of all their employment-related security arrangements. For the tax year ending 6 April 2024, companies operating employment-related securities arrangements (whether tax-advantaged or not) must file their online annual returns by 6 July 2024.
Lack of evidence of compliance with these important notification and reporting obligations is an issue which often crops up in due diligence on transactions, so it is helpful that HMRC has expanded its guidance for companies operating share plans.
We expect that HMRC's Submit an EMI notification and ERS return templates and forms pages will be further updated in the spring, with the publication of the forms and guidance for use for the tax year ending 6 April 2024.
Please get in touch with your usual Osborne Clarke contact or one of the experts below if you have any queries or would like to discuss further.
