Readers are reminded that from the tax year 2014/15 on, annual returns of employment related share schemes must be made online. Paper forms are no longer accepted. See the following documents on GOV.UK for more information: Tell HMRC about your employment related securities and Employment related securities: check files and submit returns.

The new rules on share plan reporting were introduced by the Finance Act 2014 and represent a big change to the previous process. The rules require:

• all share plans to be registered online;
• all HMRC approved plans to be self-certified; and
• annual returns to be filed online (the deadline for 2014/15 is 6 July 2015).

The deadline is approaching fast, and any companies who have not yet started preparing for the changes should do so as soon as possible, to avoid prejudicing the tax status of approved plans and/or incurring late filing penalties. Approved plans are now knowns as “tax advantaged” plans.