All employee share schemes and arrangements for the acquisition of employment-related securities (whether or not tax-approved) in place in 2014-15 must, since 6 April 2014, be registered online through HMRC’s PAYE Online service. To register for this, an employer must go here. There have been initial teething problems with the service and where (for example) the reason for a failure to register an EMI option within the 92-day limit was solely due to these issues, HMRC accept that this is a “reasonable excuse”.

It is possible for agents to be granted access to PAYE online. Agents’ access can be limited to solely ERS and multiple agents are allowed; if it is desired to restrict agents to only certain ERS schemes, each scheme must be registered with a different PAYE reference number. Agents must be registered before they can have access.

Where an annual return is found to be incorrect, a complete amended return must now be submitted instead of just any rectified section.