Frequently asked questions.
Maturity
1. Buy shares – to keep
Your shares will be valued at the current Tesco Share Price, even though you’ll pay the
discounted
Option Price for them. You can receive dividends on the shares, if they’re available.
Your shares will be held electronically in the Tesco Share Account until
you
want to sell them. You may make money if the Tesco Share Price is higher than the discounted
Option Price, if you sell
them in the future.
2. Buy shares – to sell
You may make money if the Tesco Share Price is higher than the discounted Option Price
when the shares are sold. Please check the Share Price before choosing the “sell” option.
Please
also read the Paying tax section
3. Buy shares – to transfer to an ISA
If you sell them from an ISA, this profit won’t be subject to Capital Gains Tax. The maximum
amount of shares you can transfer into an ISA for the current tax year (2023/24) is £20,000
(minus
any money that has been paid to any other ISA). If you have an existing EQi Flexible Stocks &
Shares ISA and you’ve withdrawn cash from your ISA you can now replace it in the same tax
year,
without affecting your annual subscription limit of £20,000.
Any shares that go over the ISA limit will be transferred to the Tesco Share Account. There is no charge to transfer shares into an EQi ISA, but a Custody fee and share dealing charges apply. For more details, including charges, please go to eqi.co.uk/info/isa/pricing. This choice can only be selected online.
4. Take your savings back
You won’t benefit from buying shares at the discounted Option Price. Your savings
will be
returned to you by BACS to the same bank account that you receive your pay. To request a
repayment
of your savings, you should call the Equiniti Employee Helpline and speak to an agent.
If you change your mind and the Tesco Share Price is above the discounted Option Price, you can still choose to buy shares at he discounted Option Price before the ‘Last date to buy shares at the discounted Option Price’ shown on the Shares Portal.
If you don’t take any action by 31 August 2024 (or within six months of your Scheme End Date shown on the Shares Portal) you won’t be able to benefit from buying Tesco shares at the discounted Option Price. Your savings will be automatically returned to you.
Equiniti will need to know your nationality. If you’re a UK National, you don’t need to do anything.
If you’re a non-UK National, or hold dual Nationalities, you’ll need to provide your National Client Identifier (NCI), which will typically be your passport number or national/personal identity number.
You can read more about your NCI at nationalitycalculator.co.uk. As the NCI will be different for each country, this information can only be collected online using the Shares Portal.
Equiniti have set up an NCI calculator which you can access by going to nationalitycalculator.co.uk.
For every payment (i.e. SAYE deduction from your four-weekly pay) missed, the maturity date of your Scheme will be deferred and you’ll continue to have deductions taken from your pay until you’ve completed your savings Scheme contract duration. You'll find your Scheme End Date on the Shares Portal or the letter you received about your SAYE scheme maturity.
If your date is after 31 August 2024, you won’t be able to select choice two or choice three as you won’t have completed your savings Scheme before the exercise and sell service and the ISA transfer facility closes.
No, the Scheme Rules don’t allow you to transfer your savings from this scheme to a new Scheme.
You can transfer your shares to an EQi Flexible Stocks & Shares ISA (Individual Savings Account provided by Equiniti) at the same time you give an online instruction to buy shares at the discounted Option Price.
There isn’t a charge for transferring shares into the ISA, however there will be an ongoing quarterly Custody fee and commission on trades.
You won’t be taxed on any profit from selling your shares from an ISA. For more information about the Rates and Charges, please contact EQi’s Flexible Stocks & Shares ISA Team on 0345 0700 720 (lines are open 08:00 to 17:30, Monday to Friday excluding UK Public holidays), or go to eqi.co.uk/info/isa/pricing.
The deadline for entering your instruction to transfer your shares into an ISA is 31 August 2024.
The Tesco Share Price can be found at tescoplc.com
If you submit your request by 6pm 22 February 2024 your shares are expected to be sold on 1 March 2024 and will be sold at the price achievable in the market when the trade is placed on 1 March 2024, not the price when you submitted your choice. Any request received before 6pm on a Friday (starting 1 March 2024) will be processed the following Thursday, and will be sold at the price achievable in the market on the day they are sold, not the price when you submitted your choice. For example, if you submitted your choice on Monday 4 March, your shares are expected to be sold on Thursday 14 March.
Commission is charged on the sale of shares. The commission is 0.5% of the value of the sale with a minimum fee of £15.00, and will be taken from the total of your sale. The sales facility is subject to achieving a minimum sale price the same as the discounted Option Price. Therefore, there is a small risk that you’ll get back less than what you’ve saved.
Please check the current Share Price, as the amount you receive will be affected by the value of your shares at the time they’re sold and the commission of at least £15 that will be deducted from the sale proceeds.
You may want to keep some shares and benefit from a potential increase in share value, or you could sell some shares before 5 April 2024 and keep the rest to sell in the next tax year to manage any Capital Gains Tax liability.
You won’t pay Income Tax or National Insurance Contributions (NIC) on your savings or, if you choose to buy Tesco shares (keep in TSA, sell immediately or keep in an ISA).
Your savings have been taken from your pay after Income Tax and NIC have been deducted, so you’re not taxed on the money you save.
If you decide to buy Tesco shares you may have to pay Capital Gains Tax (CGT) after you’ve sold your shares if your total gains for the tax year exceeds the capital gains exemption (£6,000 in the 2023/24 tax year, and for the tax year 2024/25 it has been announced the CGT annual exemption will reduce to £3,000). If you have two SAYE Schemes that mature at the same time, don’t forget that the combined profit you make will be applied against the annual exemption amount for the tax year you are in when you sell your shares. You may be required to submit a self-assessment form if you’re affected by CGT. Read more at gov.uk/capital-gains-tax.
If you buy shares to keep, you may need to pay tax on your dividend payments. Tax is payable on dividends if the total amount of dividends you receive from your shares in a tax year, together with the dividends paid on any other shares you hold including cash dividends paid on Share Incentive Plan Shares, is more than the dividend allowance.
The dividend allowance is £1,000 for the 2023/24 tax year, and will reduce to £500 for the 2024/25 tax year . Dividends paid on shares held in an ISA are not subject to tax. Read more at gov.uk/tax-on-dividends.
You’ll receive any money made from the sale of your shares by BACS to the same bank account that you receive your Tesco pay. You should receive the money within 5 working days from the date of the settlement of the sale.
If the Tesco Share Price is below the discounted Option Price when your instruction is carried out, your option will not be exercised and your instruction will be carried forward to the following week. Equiniti will contact you if this continues to happen.
If the Share Price is higher than the discounted Option Price before your last exercise date, you’ll still have the opportunity to return some or all of your savings to buy shares at the discounted Option Price. Your last exercise date is shown on the Shares Portal.
You’ll need to write to Equiniti confirming you want to exercise your option and include a cheque made out to ‘Lloyds Bank plc re Tesco SAYE’. Please send your letter and cheque to:
Employee Share Plans
Equiniti Limited
Aspect House
Spencer Road
Lancing
West Sussex
BN99 6DA
United Kingdom
to be received by Equiniti no later than your ‘Last date to buy shares at the discounted Option Price’ shown on the Shares Portal.
If you’ve chosen to buy shares to keep in the Tesco Share Account (TSA) under choice one, and you don’t already hold shares in the TSA, a new account will be created for you and an Opening Statement will be issued to you giving you details of the shares you hold.
Shares held in the TSA can only be sold using Equiniti Financial Services Limited.
Details on how to sell your shares through Equiniti Financial Services Limited along with your Shareholder Reference will be included on your TSA Opening or quarterly Statement. If you choose to transfer shares out of the TSA onto an Ordinary Share Certificate there isn’t a fee, as long as the request is received by Equiniti within 90 days of the shares going into the TSA. After 90 days, a £10 admin fee will be charged for a paper certificate.
For more information read the Tesco Share Account Employee Guide which is available in the Useful Links section at www.shareview.co.uk/tesco
If you use your savings to buy Tesco shares at the discounted Option Price, the value of shares and any income from them can go up as well as down. Therefore, you may get back less than the amount you invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.
Neither Tesco PLC or Equiniti Financial Services Limited provide advice or make recommendations about investments. If you have any doubts about an investment, you should seek advice from an authorised financial adviser.
Your option to buy shares at the discounted Option Price will expire six months after your Scheme End Date (shown on the Shares Portal). Your savings will be returned to you and you won’t be able to exercise your option. Your total savings will be paid by BACS to the same bank account that you receive your pay.
In accordance with the Sharesave (SAYE) Prospectus issued by HM Revenue and Customs (‘HMRC’), your savings held under the Scheme(s) with Lloyds Bank plc, as the SAYE Savings Carrier, won’t receive a tax-free bonus.
If you need more information about your Save As You Earn Scheme please call the Equiniti Employee Helpline on +44 (0) 371 384 2487. Lines are open 8.30am to 5.30pm (UK time), Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays in England and Wales). Calls to 03 numbers cost no more than a national rate call to 01 or 02 numbers.
Invitation
All Tesco colleagues who have completed at least three months’ continuous service by 17 November 2023.
For each SAYE Scheme, a discounted option price is set. Usually, this is the Tesco share price at the time, with a 10% discount. This year, the discount will be 20% which means that your discount is twice as good. The option price for the current invitation can be found at the top of the invitation page, posters and ourtesco.com/our-benefits/shares-in-tesco from Friday 17 November.
Your savings will be taken from your pay after tax every four weeks, starting in February 2024.
Deductions will stop being taken from your pay in November 2026 for the three year savings period, and September 2028 for the five year savings period.
This is dependent on tax weeks and the payroll cycle.
No, once the invitation has closed you won’t be able to change the amount. However, you can cancel at any time and your savings will be returned to you. You can also take a savings holiday if you need to.
This year, Tesco has introduced a tax-free bonus for colleagues at the end of their savings period.
The three and five year tax-free bonuses are set by the Bank of England at the time of the invitation.
For the November 2023 invitation, under the three year Scheme the bonus is 1.1 times your four-weekly saving amount and under the five year Scheme the bonus is 3.2 times your four-weekly saving amount
Example - if you apply to save £50 in either the 3 or 5 year Scheme, at the end of the savings period you’ll receive a tax-free bonus. A more detailed example can be found under the Useful documents section of this site:
| SAYE Scheme | Four-weekly saving | Bonus rates 2023 SAYE schemes | One-time bonus att he end of the savings period |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 year | £50 | 1.1 | £55 |
| 5 year | £50 | 3.2 | £160 |
For more information please go to ourtesco.com/reward-and-benefits/shares/saye-2020.
Alternatively, you can call the Tesco Shares Helpline on 0371 384 2487.
Calls to 03 numbers cost no more than a national rate call to 01 or 02 numbers.
In making an application, you’re applying to join the SAYE Scheme which is run in accordance with the Scheme Rules on which we intend to rely. Full terms and conditions, Bank Prospectus and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme Information Sheet and Exclusions list referred to have been made available in the Useful links section. These form the basis on which Equiniti services will be provided to you. For your own benefit you should read these terms carefully before giving an application instruction. If you do not understand any point please call 0371 384 2487*. You understand that if this declaration is untrue in any respect any interest or bonus payable under the Plan will be forfeited. By applying to join the Scheme you acknowledge that you have read the Financial Services Compensation Scheme Information Sheet and Exclusions list.
Textel/Minicom Service Number 0371 384 2255*.
If you would like to receive a copy of this brochure in an alternative format, for example Braille or audio tape, please contact Equiniti on 0371 384 2487*.
*Calls to 03 numbers cost no more than a national rate call to 01 or 02 numbers.