What’s new on my desk this week: employment related securities return

What has come across your desk this week?

We had an employment related securities (ERS) return to prepare for one of our smaller clients this year. The company does not pay salary or provide benefits so has no need for a PAYE scheme. However a scheme is required for submitting ERS returns. Our client was having difficulty creating a PAYE scheme so I contacted HMRC for advice on what to do.

What was HMRC’s advice?

The Revenue’s agent directed me to Employment-related Securities Bulletin 20 (July 2015) (tinyurl.com/3mnpj588) which exempts companies that don’t otherwise need a PAYE scheme from submitting the returns.

None of the online searches and books I have seen on ERS mention this exception. It would have saved us a lot of time messing about for a couple of clients.

These are the relevant parts of the...