COMPANIES that offer share options to their staff must heed a July 6 deadline or face cash penalties, accountants Baker Tilly have warned.

The warning is being issued because businesses that fail to file a return could incur costs of £300 per reportable event. Baker Tilly is also advising companies that if they have received forms from the Inland Revenue, they need to return them, even if there have not been any relevant transactions during the year.

Paul Hodge, tax partner at Baker Tilly’s Tunbridge Wells office, said: ‘It is becoming increasingly common for businesses to reward their staff by providing them with shares or ‘share options’.

“If your business has been rewarding its staff in this way then the Inland Revenue has introduced a new reporting regime with a deadline of July 6 for shares or share options provided to staff in the tax year to April 5, 2004. A specific form is available to report the relevant transactions’.

If you have not been issued with the form but have relevant transactions to report, then you must file a report with the Inland Revenue.