Revenue confirmed that the new electronic form, known as the
Employer's Share Awards (ESA) return will be available during
June 2021.
This new electronic form is needed by employers who are required
to report certain share based remuneration electronically to
Revenue. Finance Act 2020 introduced a mandatory reporting
obligation on employers, essentially this means that reporting by
employers is extended to include share awards given in the form of
cash equivalents, or where a discount on shares is provided, to
employees.
According to Revenue the ESA return applies for the tax year
2020 onwards.
Deadline for reporting
The statutory deadline for reporting share scheme information
using the existing electronic returns KEEP1, RSS1, ESS1 is 31 March
following the relevant tax year. This 31 March deadline remains and
also applies to the new ESA return. However, as this new ESA return
was not available in advance of 31 March 2021, the deadline for the
2020 ESA
