HMRC have released Employment-Related Securities (ERS) Bulletin 64, which contains details of changes to the Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) scheme thresholds, end-of-year reporting requirements and the mandatory tax adviser registration.
Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) changes to the scheme thresholds from April 2026
An increase in EMI thresholds was announced at Budget 2025 and will be introduced from 6 April 2026.
- EMI schemes are targeted share option schemes designed to support enterprises in recruiting and retaining key employees. Companies can choose:
- Which eligible employees receive options.
- How many share options each selected employee receives.
- The exercise price and vesting conditions.
The government has introduced legislation in the Finance Bill 2025-26 to expand EMI limits, from 6 April 2026, to allow more companies to use the scheme.
- From 6 April 2026, the EMI limits will be increased for most companies as follows:
- The maximum value of company options (from £3 million to £6 million).
- The value of gross assets (from £30 million or less to £120 million or less).
- The number of employees (from fewer than 250 to fewer than 500).
- The maximum holding period (from 10 years to 15 years).
Where the employer company is a specified company, the limits increase, and the extended exercise period will not apply.
- A specified company is a company with its registered office in Northern Ireland and trades in goods or the provision of electricity.
- Further guidance on specified companies will be published in the Employee Tax Advantages Share Scheme User Manual ahead of 6 April 2026.
For the first year, there will be no change to the current EMI reporting requirements.
For options granted on or before 5 April 2026, the original scheme limits will apply.
- The extension of the holding period can be applied retrospectively to existing contracts that have not expired or been exercised.
- The tax advantages will be retained provided that these contracts are amended in line with the option agreement or legislation, where required.
There will be no change to the EMI reporting requirements relating to the maximum holding period.
See EMI: Enterprise Management Incentive Scheme and Employment-Related Securities: Reporting
Employment-Related Securities (ERS) reporting requirements for Short Term Business Visitors (STBVs)
Where an employee is an STBV who is covered by an EP Appendix 4 arrangement, HMRC will no longer require companies to report non-tax advantaged ERS data for these employees, provided no UK Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions (NICs) would be due.
- This applies to all previous and future tax years.
- The ERS reporting obligation remains in rare scenarios where UK Income Tax and NICs would be due, such as where the STBV was previously a UK resident and share options were granted at that time.
The Employment-Related Securities Manual has been updated to reflect this.
- Further information and guidance will be provided in due course.
See Employment-Related Securities: Reporting and Globally mobile employees: Short-Term Business Visitors
End-of-year filing reminder
If you operate an employee share scheme, you must file an end-of-year ERS return.
- For the 2025-26 tax year, you must submit an end-of-year ERS return on or before 6 July 2026.
- 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 ensure you are submitting the correct end-of-year return template for the scheme you are operating.
- You must also make sure that you are using the most up-to-date version, or the ERS online service will reject your submission.
You should cease the scheme if you have:
- Registered a scheme in error.
- A scheme which is no longer operating.
You must still submit an annual return for ceased schemes for the tax year in which the final event date falls.
If you have stopped being an employer and have ceased your PAYE scheme, you will also need to consider whether you need to cease your ERS scheme.
See Employment-Related Securities: Reporting
Enterprise Management Incentive (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 following the end of the tax year.
- For options granted during the 2025-26 tax year, the EMI notification must be submitted by 6 July 2026.
- You must also submit an end-of-year return for all live EMI schemes by 6 July 2026.
The government announced at Budget 2025 that it will legislate to remove the EMI notification for options granted on or after 6 April 2027.
- An EMI notification is still required for options granted before 6 April 2027.
See Employment-Related Securities: Reporting
Saving copies of your return and notifications
Before you submit your ERS return or EMI notification, you must save a copy of it for your own records.
- If you are uploading an EMI notification attachment, you must save a copy of the file.
- If you are filling in the details online, you may want to take screenshots of each page and save them along with the confirmation page.
You will not be able to access a copy of what you submit through the online service once you have submitted it.
Penalties for late filing
A £100 penalty will be issued automatically if the end-of-year ERS return, including nil returns where appropriate, is not submitted by 6 July 2026.
- Additional automatic penalties of £300 will be charged if the return is still outstanding three months after the original deadline of 6 July, and a further £300 if it's still outstanding six months after that date.
Even if you have received and paid the initial penalty, you must still submit an end-of-year or nil return to meet your filing obligations and prevent further penalties.
See Shares, securities & options: Tax compliance
ERS administrators
Every year, many taxpayers fail to meet the ERS filing deadline because they cannot log in.
- This is often because the only person who could log in to file the return has left the company or is away.
It is best 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.
- 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.
End-of-year template guidance updates for April 2026
Bulletin 62 (November 2025) provided information on Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES) announced at Budget 2025.
Bulletin 63 (January 2026) provided an update on settlement reporting.
Following these bulletins, relevant questions within the end-of-year template guidance notes have now been updated.
Modernising and mandating tax advisor registration
Read about the new legal registration requirement for tax advisers who interact with HMRC in relation to their clients' tax affairs.
The guidance explains:
- Who is required to register.
- When registration must take place.
- What information advisers will need to provide as part of the process.
Tax advisers who register will also need to meet HMRC's registration conditions, which are set out in the guidance.
- This will help protect taxpayers from tax advisers who aren't fit to act and support a fairer market for compliant taxpayers and advisers.
HMRC will publish further communications and guidance ahead of May 2026.
From 18 May 2026, tax advisers who interact with HMRC on behalf of their clients will be required to register with HMRC.
- They will need to do so through HMRC's Agent Services Account (ASA).
Changes are being made to the services to simplify the current registration process and reduce the administrative burden on tax advisers.
- As part of the process, HMRC will automate some of the checks it will place on tax advisers, changes which will be completed by April 2027.
Once an application has been approved, the business will be issued with an agent reference number, which will give them access to key services, including:
- Self Assessment.
- Corporation Tax.
- PAYE for employers, including the Construction Industry Scheme (CIS).
If you are an agent dealing with HMRC on behalf of your clients' tax affairs, you will be required to register with HMRC.
- When you need to register depends on how you currently deal with HMRC.
- You'll need to register for an ASA from 18 May 2026, unless either you already have:
- A Self Assessment or Corporation Tax account: you'll need to register from 18 August 2026.
- An ASA: You'll not need to register again.
- HMRC will contact you through your ASA when they need more information from you, to check if you meet certain conditions.
- You can use the online service to register from 18 May 2026, even if you're not required to do so until a later date.
You will have three months from the date you need to register to apply for an ASA.
- You can continue to interact with HMRC on behalf of your clients:
- On services that you already use during these three months.
- While HMRC is processing your application.
- If you seek authorisation to manage ERS schemes on behalf of a company once your three-month period ends, you must be registered before you can act.
- If you interact with HMRC on ERS matters without being registered, you may be subject to sanctions, including suspension and fines.
Authorisation arrangements for ERS will otherwise remain unchanged.
- You will continue to use the existing online agent authorisation process, including the issue of authorisation codes sent by post to clients.
See Mandatory tax adviser registration with HMRC
Accessibility improvements to ERS end-of-year templates from April 2027
To ensure that HMRC documentation is compliant with accessibility regulations, the ERS end-of-year return templates, guidance and technical notes are being reviewed, aiming to make them consistent, clear and user-friendly.
- HMRC plans to publish new versions of the end-of-year return templates, technical notes and guidance pages at the beginning of November 2026.
- This will give employers five months' notice to make any changes to non-standard HMRC templates used to submit ERS end-of-year returns.
Further information will be published in future bulletins.
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