HMRC has provided advance notice of changes that it is making to the five employment-related securities (ERS) end of year return templates from 6 April 2023. This will allow employers time to prepare the relevant information for their returns. This update was in HMRC’s Employment Related Securities Bulletin 47.

The revised end of year return templates, guidance and technical notes will be published in February 2023. These will reflect the following four changes.

First, completion of the “PAYE reference of the employing company” field will become mandatory for all end of year templates submitted from 6 April 2023. The employing company should be the one with the PAYE obligation.

Second, completion of the “Is PAYE operated Y/N” field will be mandatory for Other ERS schemes and arrangements’ end of year return templates submitted on or after 6 April 2023. This field is already a mandatory field on the other four ERS returns.

Third, completion of the National Insurance number (NINO) field will become mandatory for all five types of ERS end of year return templates submitted on or after 6 April 2023. This will result in some consequential amendments to column title headings. Recognising that some individuals included on the return may not have a NINO, the bulletin explains the format for an alternative nine-character reference that should be used in exceptional circumstances.

HMRC will not share this reference with any other HMRC services. It asks that this reference is not provided to the individual or used in any other correspondence with HMRC. If the individual is allocated a NINO at a later date, it should be used for that individual in subsequent ERS returns.

The final change is to clarify the HMRC reference number to be used in the share valuation columns. The reference number to enter here is the HMRC valuation reference, where an HMRC valuation has been provided.