Missed the 6 July ERS deadline? Fix it before it escalates.

Every scheme registered on HMRC's ERS service needs a return each year — even if nothing happened, and even if the scheme is dormant.

An employment related securities (ERS) return tells HMRC about shares or share options involving your employees or directors — EMI options, unapproved options, growth shares, or shares acquired by reason of employment. If your company has ever registered a scheme on HMRC's ERS online service, a return is due by 6 July after every tax year, whether or not anything happened. One-off events count too: giving shares to a new director or employee is usually reportable even if you never set up a formal scheme.

Yes. Once a scheme is registered, HMRC requires a return every year until the scheme is formally closed, and a year with no activity must be reported as a nil return. Filing nothing at all triggers the same automatic penalties as missing a return with activity in it. If the scheme is genuinely finished, the better fix is to close it down properly — including the final return for the year it ends — so future returns stop.

£100 automatically the day after the 6 July deadline. A further £300 if the return is still outstanding 3 months later, and another £300 at 6 months. Beyond 9 months, HMRC can charge £10 a day. Separately, a tax-advantaged scheme return (EMI, CSOP, SAYE, SIP) containing a material inaccuracy that is careless or deliberate can attract a penalty of up to £5,000 — that cap comes from HMRC's factsheet CC/FS32, which is written for tax-advantaged schemes. Unapproved options and growth shares are reported on the 'Other' template and fall outside it; a careless or deliberate inaccuracy there is penalised under the general inaccuracy rules instead, which are a percentage of the tax at stake rather than a £5,000 cap. Penalties apply per scheme, per year.

File the outstanding return as quickly as possible — the escalating penalties are driven by how long the return stays outstanding, so every week matters more than anything else. Once it's in, you may be able to appeal the penalties if you have a reasonable excuse. HMRC weighs each case on its own facts, so the sensible step is to get the return filed first and then look at whether there are grounds to appeal — which we'll do with you honestly and handle if there are.

Returns are filed by uploading HMRC's own spreadsheet templates through the ERS section of your Government Gateway account. There's a separate template for each scheme type, the formatting rules are strict, and a file that doesn't match your scheme registration is rejected outright — often after the deadline has passed. There's no way for software to file it for you behind the scenes, which is why it stays painful.

Yes — EMI option grants must also be notified to HMRC. For options granted from 6 April 2024 onwards the notification deadline is aligned with the annual return: 6 July following the end of the tax year of grant. Miss it and the options can lose their EMI tax advantages, which is usually far more expensive than any filing penalty.

Yes. As your agent we can file outstanding returns, handle the annual nil returns, deal with reportable events like new grants or exercises, and help wind down schemes you no longer need. Annual nil returns are a fixed £100 a year per scheme; anything more involved is quoted as a fixed fee up front, before you commit. Most clients bundle it into their monthly plan and never think about 6 July again.