Obligations to provide information
Contents
Employees' records and Self Assessment Returns
- From April 1996, all taxpayers are obliged by law to
keep records of their income and capital gains so they can complete a Self
Assessment Return. If an employee holds or receives shares or share options
because of his or her job, the employee will need to keep information about
when the shares or options were received, what they were worth, and how
much was paid for them.
- Employees are required to give HMRC full details of all
taxable income in their Self Assessment Return, including liabilities arising
from shares or share options. Even though employers report these details,
employees have to fulfil this obligation too.
- An employee who does not receive a Self Assessment Return is nevertheless
required to inform HMRC of any chargeability to income tax
- including that arising from shares or share options unless all tax liabilities
have been, or will be, correctly deducted from his or her wages through
the PAYE system. If the employee has income from which tax has not been
correctly deducted, he or she must inform the Tax Office within six months
of the end of the tax year in which the income arose.
- If the tax owed is less than £1,000, the employee can contact their
tax office with details of the extra income
and ask them to adjust his or her PAYE code. There is normally no need for
the employee to fill in a tax return if the tax owed is less than £1,000.
- If the tax owed is more than £1,000, the employee will normally
have to complete a Self Assessment Return. The employee should ask HMRC to include the share schemes pages with the return.
Help Sheets
The following Self Assessment help sheets may be of use:
