ETASSUM56030 - Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI): Option notifications: Annual returns

Paragraph 52, Schedule 5 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 (ITEPA)

A company whose shares are subject to a qualifying option at any time during a tax year must complete an EMI annual return. The return must contain the information required by HMRC.

Companies are required to make an annual return for each year beginning with the tax year when the first qualifying option is granted and ending with the tax year in which the “termination condition” is met.

A company must therefore make a return (a ‘nil return’) for a tax year even if no EMI options were granted or exercised in the year.