Investor & Tax Reliefs

Grow your business

To encourage investment in UK businesses, the government offers generous tax relief schemes for investors. The conditions required to qualify for tax relief and the way in which it is given vary.

Helping yougrow your business

To support small businesses trying to raise funds, the UK government introduced a number of different investment reliefs to help boost businesses.

Small businesses tend to find it difficult to raise funds because of their size, balance sheet and exit opportunities. For this reason, many institutional investors tend to shy away from these types of investments and these businesses also find it difficult to get support from the banks.

We can help compile and submit all necessary documents so you can demonstrate to prospective investors that your companies qualifies for EIS or SEIS relief.

The EIS performs a vital function in supporting entrepreneurship, encouraging private investment into emerging and growing British businesses. It launched in 1994 and to date over 26,000 companies have benefitted and over £22 billion of funds have been raised making the UK the largest market for early stage investment in Europe, followed by the United States.

Learn more

The SEIS was introduced in 2012 to complement EIS with a focus on smaller companies. SEIS offers tax relief at a higher rate than that offered by EIS to reflect the higher risk nature of investment in these businesses so different qualification rules apply. Since launch over 12,040 companies have received investment and over £1 billion of funds have been raised.

Learn more
what isEIS?

The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) offers tax incentives in the form of a variety of Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax reliefs to investors who invest in businesses using this scheme. Likewise, under EIS, businesses can raise up to £5 million each year, and a maximum of £12 million during the business' lifetime. This includes amounts received from other venture capital schemes.

What are some of the requirements to claim EIS?

For the company

  • Do you employ fewer than 250 full time staff?
  • Have you been trading for less than seven years?
  • Are you a UK, private and unlisted business?
  • Do you have less than £15 million in gross assets?
  • No other company must own more than 50% shares of your company
  • Do you plan to use the money raised on a qualifying purpose within two years from the issue of the shares?
    Alternatively, two years from the date the company begins to carry on qualifying trade.
  • Do you carry out a trade that qualifies? Most trades qualify unless they are in energy production, farming, legal or financial services and property development. For a full list of trades that do not qualify, click here.

For the investor

  • You can only invest up to a maximum of £2 million into qualifying companies each tax year.
    Usually £1m but £2m if at least £1m of that is invested in knowledge-intensive companies.
  • To benefit from the tax relief you must hold shares for a minimum of three years.
    If you claim tax relief on a share and sell it before the three year period, you will be subject to clawback on any relief given.
  • Investor does not need to be a UK resident but must have a UK income tax liability against which to set the relief.
  • You must not be connected to the EIS company (paid director, partner or employee).
    Unless you're a Business Angel.
  • Cannot hold more than 30% of the company with you 'associates'. Associates are business partners, spouses, lineal relatives but not siblings.
what are theBenefits?

For Enterprise Investment Scheme investors (EIS)

Read more about investment reliefs in our blog.

Visit blog

For example, if you made an investment of £1,000, you can save £300 in income tax with a cap of £2m per tax year.

Startup investment is considered a high-risk asset class, therefore there is a chance the value of your investment can decrease over time. If you lose money on your investment, you may claim loss relief, which is equivalent to your income tax bracket.

After holding EIS shares for at least two years, you are eligible to claim Inheritance Tax relief of 100%, which is much shorter than the 7 years required by some other asset classes.

If you hold the shares for at least three years, then you may not need to pay Capital Gains Tax on your investment gains. For example, if you bought shares for £1,000 and over three years they increased in value to £3,000, you will pay no capital gains tax on your £2,000 gain when you sell.

You will not have to pay Capital Gains Tax if you reinvest the gains into a company that qualifies for EIS. You will still have to pay Capital Gains Tax when you dispose of the EIS shares at a later date.

what isSEIS?

The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) can help your company grow in the earliest stages of your business. It's similar in structure but is targeted at smaller companies - with gross assets of up to £350,000 and fewer than 25 employees.

What are some of the requirements to claim EIS?

For the company

  • Have you got gross assets of less than £350,000 at the time the shares are issued?
  • Do you employ fewer than 25 full time staff?
  • Have you been trading for less than three years?
  • Are you a UK, private and unlisted business?
  • Are you planning to use the money raised within three years of the date of the relevant share issue?
  • Not have raised any money from EIS or VCT investors
  • Your company can only receive a maximum of £250,000 through SEIS investment in its lifetime
  • Have you carried out business activity for at least four months?
  • Do you carry out a trade that qualifies? Most trades qualify unless they are in energy production, farming, legal or financial services and property development. For a full list of trades that do not qualify, click here.

For the investor

  • You can only invest up to a maximum of £200k into qualifying companies each tax year.
    If you want to invest more than that amount, you may wish to consider invest
  • To benefit from the tax relief you must hold the shares for a minimum of three years.
    If you claim tax relief on a share and sell it before the three year period, you will be subject to clawback on any relief given.
  • Investor does not need to be a UK resident but must have a UK income tax liability against which to set the relief.
  • You must not be connected to the EIS company (paid director, partner or employee).
    Unless you're a Business Angel.
  • Cannot hold more than 30% of the company with you 'associates'. Associates are business partners, spouses, lineal relatives but not siblings.
what are theBenefits?

For Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme investors (SEIS)

Read more about investment reliefs in our blog.

Visit blog

For example, if you made an investment of £20,000, you can save £10,000 in income tax with a cap of £2m per tax year.

Startup investment is considered a high-risk asset class, therefore there is a chance the value of your investment can decrease over time. If you lose money on your investment, you may claim loss relief, which is equivalent to your income tax bracket.

For example, if your income tax rate is 45% and you make a £20,000 investment but the business fails, you could claim 50% income tax relief, which would be £10,000. For the remaining £10,000, you can claim 45% income tax relief. This would mean your total loss is only £5,500 as opposed to £20,000.

After holding SEIS shares for at least 2 years, you are eligible to claim Inheritance Tax relief of 100%, which is much shorter than the seven years required by some other asset classes.

If you hold the shares for at least three years, then you may not need to pay Capital Gains Tax on your investment gains. For example, if you bought shares for £1,000 and over three years they increased in value to £3,000, you will pay no capital gains tax on your £2,000 gain when you sell.

You can defer capital gains earned on disposal of any other assets as long as you reinvest it into EIS/SEIS shares.

ourService

How can we help?

SEIS and EIS are a great incentive for businesses and investors alike. If you would like to learn more or have any questions, get in touch.

Get in touch

Before investors can make a claim, companies need to go through an application process with HMRC. We can help, your business:

  • Obtain HMRC Advance Assurance (optional)
  • Setting up Advance Subscription
  • Help you structure your business and remain compliant
  • Complete compliance statements (SEIS 1 or EIS 1)

If you would like to discuss the impact investing into SEIS or EIS projects has on your tax liability, get in touch.

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