Employment Related Securities Bulletin 59 (March 2025)
Source: gov.uk (2025-03-27)

Find out about how recent changes announced have an impact on Employment Related Securities and what this means for you.

Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES) — policy update

The Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES) is a new type of stock market for secondary trading of private company shares.

HM Treasury will lay a statutory instrument before Parliament in May 2025, to introduce PISCES.

PISCES will be a regulated stock market, but it will not be a Recognised Stock Exchange (RSE) within the meaning of section 1005 Income Tax Act 2007 (https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2007/3/section/1005).

When completing the Employment Related Securities (ERS) end of year return, and entering data for shares that can be traded on PISCES, you must answer ‘No’ to the question ‘are they listed on a recognised stock exchange?’

There are no other changes to the reporting requirements because of PISCES.

A technical note regarding the tax implications for employees trading their shares on PISCES (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-implications-for-companies-and-employees-in-relation-to-employees-trading-their-shares-on-pisces) was published at Spring Statement 2025.

Neonatal care reminder — effective from 6 April 2025

As announced at Autumn Budget 2024, employers will need to make sure the notice they must give to an employee about the possible effect of deductions from salary, for a Share Incentive Plan (SIP), is for statutory neonatal care pay as well as other statutory payments. This applies from 6 April 2025 for new SIP contracts.

Non-domicile reform reminder — changes to the guidance

ERS income is a type of employment income that may be eligible for Overseas Workday Relief (OWR). As part of the non-domicile reform, there will be changes to OWR from 6 April 2025. The impacts of this change on ERS are outlined in the Employment Related Securities Bulletin 58 (November 2024) (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-related-securities-bulletin-58-november-2024).

New guidance will be published in the Employment Related Securities Manual (https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-related-securities) on 6 April 2025. The changes will not affect reporting requirements until the 2025 to 2026 reporting window. The questions on the non-tax advantaged share scheme ‘Other’ return template, which references apportionment for residence or duties outside of the UK, will not change, but the guidance note for these questions will be updated for 6 April 2026.

ERS end of year returns and Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) notification windows — reminder

If you operate an ERS scheme you must file an end of year ERS return.

For the 2024 to 2025 tax year, you must submit an end of year ERS return on or before 6 July 2025. If you miss this deadline, you will receive a late filing penalty.

You must submit a return or nil return for every scheme that you have registered on the ERS online service.

You must make sure you are submitting the correct end of year return template (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/employment-related-securities-detailed-information#end-of-year-return-templates-and-forms) for the relevant scheme you are operating. You’ll also need to check you’re using the most up to date version, or the ERS online service will reject your submission.

If you’ve registered a scheme in error, or it is no longer operating, you must cease the ERS scheme (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tell-hmrc-your-employment-related-securitiesscheme-has-ended). You must still submit an ‘annual return’ or ‘Nil return’ for the tax year in which the final event date falls.

If you’ve stopped being an employer and have ceased your Pay As You Earn scheme, you’ll also need to consider whether you need to cease your ERS scheme.

EMI notifications

If you operate an EMI scheme and you have granted options on or after 6 April 2024, you must submit your EMI Notifications by 6 July 2025.

You must also submit an ‘End of Year return’ for all live EMI schemes by 6 July 2025.

Saving copies of your return and notifications

Before you submit your ERS return or EMI notification, you need to save a copy of it for your own records.

You will not be able to access a copy of what you submit through the online service once you have submitted it.

ERS administrators

Every year many customers fail to meet the ERS filing deadline because they discover that they can not log in. This is because the only person who could log in to file the return has left the company or is away.

It is advisable to have more than one administrator for your Government Gateway account in case the primary administrator is unavailable. The backup administrator can manage accounts and perform various functions, including adding new users, managing access levels, and submitting ERS returns. Having a backup administrator makes sure that critical functions can still be carried out even if the main administrator is unable to access the system.

To set up a backup administrator, log into your HMRC business tax account (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/sign-in-to-your-hmrc-business-tax-account) and follow the guidance to add a team member (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/manage-team-members-using-your-hmrc-business-tax-account#adding-a-team-member).