Exchequer Weblog

There are a number of approved share schemes that a company can use to provide its employees with shares in the company they work for, or options to buy those shares at a favourable price. The scheme designed for small companies to use is the Enterprise Management Investment scheme (EMI).

If the company chooses not to use one of the approved share or share option schemes and issues shares or options to its employees, there can be some very serious tax consequences, such as:

• The employee is taxed on the value of the shares he receives as if that value was part of his salary.
• The company must pay the employer’s class 1 NICs on the value of the shares issued.

When something changes with the set-up of your company, such as a new director, change of company name or registered office address, you need to fill in a form and send it to Companies House. All the forms that are used to report these events are replaced with new versions for changes effective from 1 October 2009 or a later date. You must use the new form to report the change as the old form will be rejected and this could lead to your company being fined if the event is not reported within the statutory deadline.

Most of the new forms can be filed online through the Companies House web site, which is quicker, cheaper, and more secure than sending a paper form through the post. If you sign-up to the Companies House PROOF scheme you can only file changes to your company’s details online. This prevents anyone hijacking your company by submitting a fraudulent paper form.

On the 1st October 2009 the final stage of the implementation of the Companies Act 2006 took place.

The effects on filing operations with Companies House, particularly software filing, have been profound and not without problems. Filers are advised to check on the latest requirements, especially concerning the furnishing of Director’s address details and share capital declarations.

The latest news releases from Companies House are available at  http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/pressDesk/recentNotices.shtml.