Maturity

You’ve got six months from your maturity date to decide what to do. The expiry date is the last day you can choose to buy shares at the option price. After this you’ll still be able to have your savings returned to you as cash. This won’t happen automatically – you’ll need to log in to your EquatePlus account.

Your ShareSave option is your opportunity to buy a set number of NatWest shares when the plan ends. The price you’ll pay is the option price.

If the NatWest share price is higher than the option price, you can choose to buy the shares (known as ‘exercising your option’), and you’ll usually make a profit. If the share price is lower than the option price you can choose not to exercise your option and instead take your savings back as cash.

Buying shares:

You don’t usually need permission or pre-approval to buy shares at the end of ShareSave, provided you don’t sell them straight away. If you’re an insider, you can’t do this in the 30 days before we announce annual or half-year results to the market.

Selling shares:

Any share sales are subject to the Personal Account Dealing requirements.

If you’re an insider or work in a defined business area, you’ll need to get prior authorisation if you want to sell shares during an Open Window, and you’ll need to use the STAR compliance system.

Find out more about the Personal Account Dealing Requirements, Open Windows and the STAR compliance system on the Control Room hub on the intranet.

If you decide to buy shares and you don’t sell them all, your shares will be held in an EquatePlus online account called the Share Plan Account.

We process Polish ShareSave instructions weekly, on a date we call the ‘allotment date’. To have your instruction processed on the next allotment date, you’ll need to submit it by the cut-off date.

In the usual weekly process, the cut-off date is Friday each week at 11pm (UK time) and the allotment date is Thursday each week. The timings are subject to change when there are bank holidays.

How long your instruction takes to be processed after the allotment date depends on what choice you have made.

If you choose to buy shares and keep them, they’ll usually be in your EquatePlus account within 2 working days. If you choose to buy shares and sell all of them straight away, your money will be sent to you two days after you sell. Remember it can take up to 5 days for the money to reach your bank account (longer for international transactions) and during the festive season this can take longer than usual. If you choose to take your savings back as cash, the money will be returned to you in your pay in the next available Payroll.

There’s no tax payable when you use your ShareSave option and savings to buy shares.

If you decide to sell your shares and you make a profit, capital gains tax is payable on the difference between the option price and the sale price of your shares. The current rate of CGT is 19%. The tax is payable by 30 April of the year following the year you sell your shares, and you’ll need to declare this income in your annual tax return (PIT-38) as it won’t be included in your PIT-11 form.

There are no social security or health insurance contributions due.

Any income from ShareSave counts towards the 1,000,000 PLN threshold for solidarity tax.

If you decide to keep your shares, you’ll be entitled to receive any future dividends paid on those shares. You’ll receive a dividend confirmation statement on EquatePlus which will provide details of your dividend. You can use this information to declare the dividend on your annual personal tax return and subsequently pay any dividend tax due.

This is not tax advice. If you have any queries about tax, you should contact an independent tax advisor.

If you decide to buy shares and you don’t want to sell them straight away, your shares will be held in an online account with EquatePlus called the Share Plan Account (SPA). The shares are held electronically instead of you holding a share certificate.

You can see your shares, buy, or sell by logging in. It’s free to hold shares in the account. When you buy or sell, you’ll pay a dealing charge of 0.235% (minimum of £17).

As a shareholder you’ll receive any dividends directly into your EquatePlus account, and can vote at our Annual General Meeting. You can also choose to have your dividends automatically reinvested in more shares if you wish.

Full details of how to use the account can be found on EquatePlus.