If you fail to tell HMRC about your employment related securities scheme, you may lose tax benefits for you and your employees.  

Find out more information about important deadlines. 

Tax-advantaged schemes 

By 6 July following the end of the tax year in which the first award of shares or first grant of options is made you must register your: 

• Share Incentive Plan 
• Save As You Earn Scheme 
• Company Share Option Plan  

Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) 

You must tell HMRC about a grant of an EMI option.

You will need to register your EMI scheme first. Once you’ve registered, you will need to submit your EMI notification by the deadline and submit your end of year return by 6 July following the end of the tax year.

Non tax-advantaged schemes 

For non tax-advantaged share schemes, where there is a reportable event, you must submit an end of year return by 6 July following the end of the tax year. Once registered, if there are no events to report, you must still submit a nil return by 6 July following the end of the tax year.

If you miss the deadline 

You’ll need to contact us in writing if you miss the deadline to:

•  register a new Company Share Option Plan (CSOP)
•  register a new Save As You Earn (SAYE) scheme
• register a new Share Incentive Plan (SIP) scheme
• submit an EMI notification

You’ll need to provide a reason why you missed the deadline. You can contact us:

• by email, at shareschemes@hmrc.gov.uk
• by post, at the following address:

If you have a reasonable excuse 

If we accept you have a reasonable excuse for missing the deadline, we will explain the next steps. 

These will include how to: 

• register your scheme late 
• submit any late returns 
• submit any late EMI notifications 

We may also ask you to use a safe data transfer method to submit any late returns. HMRC’s preferred method for data transfer is the Secure Data Exchange Service (SDES). 

Late filing penalties 

Submitting a late return, may result in you being charged late filing penalties. Find out more information about how to appeal any late filing penalties.