Employee share scheme - guide for employers

Reporting to us

You must provide an ESS annual report to us by 14 August after the end of the income year on an approved form.

You can develop your own in-house software to lodge annual reports electronically.

To develop your own software, our specifications are available from the Software developers homepage.

For more information for providers and suppliers of ESS information, refer to How to lodge your employee share scheme annual report electronically.

To help small-to-medium sized employers lodge their ESS annual report, we have two products available:

ESS Data Capture Tool
ESS Bulk Load Excel Spreadsheet.

For more information about these products, refer to Employee share scheme (ESS) ATO developed reporting products or contact us by:

phone on 1800 072 681

email to ATO-ESS@ato.gov.au

To download a copy of the paper form, refer to Employee share scheme (ESS) annual report.

The ESS annual report you provide to us must include information for each of your employees participating in an ESS and for each ESS that your employees are participating in. In general, this should include:

a plan identifier that uniquely references each plan offered by you
a plan date for the ESS taxing point; this will be one of the following

the acquisition date, for taxed-upfront schemes
the deferred taxing point for tax-deferred schemes

TFN amounts withheld from discounts on ESS interests that a taxing point arose during the income year.

For taxed-upfront schemes, you must provide information about the:

number of ESS interests acquired under taxed-upfront schemes eligible for reduction during the income year
discount for ESS interests acquired under taxed-upfront schemes eligible for reduction
number of ESS interests acquired during the income year under taxed-upfront schemes not eligible for reduction
discount for ESS interests acquired under taxed-upfront schemes not eligible for reduction.

For tax-deferred schemes, you must provide information about the:

number of ESS interests that a deferred taxing point arose during the income year
discount on the ESS interests that a deferred taxing point arose during the income year
discount for ESS interests acquired before 1 July 2009 that a cessation time occurred during the income year, whether or not your employee has made an election.

If you are using electronic lodgment, the following information is optional - the:

number of ESS interests acquired under a tax-deferred scheme during the income year
number of ESS interests acquired from a foreign source during the income year
discount for ESS interests that have a foreign source.

When determining and reporting to us the discount at the deferred taxing point, if you know that the ESS interests were disposed of, you must take account of the 30-day rule.

Sections within Employer obligations

Last Modified: Monday, 7 January 2013