You really need to post some more details ideally including specific dates and figures so that people can help. If you can't/won't do this then you need to contact a professional advisor. You might need to do this anyway. You could be talking about income tax (on the nominal income accruing from a discounted exercise price), CGT on holding them after exercise and disposing of them for a profit or a combination of both. Your scheme could have been Revenue approved (in which case there could be the option of tax deferral) or not (in which case income tax on any discounted price must be paid within 30 days via an RTSO1 return - at least that's the rules these days, not sure about 2001 - while CGT must be paid within the normal timeframes for CGT as outlined on Revenue's website; again the rules in 2001 may have been different).