SEIS & EIS Tax Relief Calculator

Frequently asked questions

• What trades are excluded from SEIS?

  Excluded trades:

  • Coal or steel production
  • Farming or market gardening
  • Leasing activities
  • Legal or financial services
  • Property development
  • Running a hotel
  • Running a nursing home
  • Generation of energy
  • Production of gas or other fuel
  • Exporting electricity
  • Banking, insurance, debt or financing services
  • Dealing in land or commodities

  However, if less than 20% of your overall business activities fall under one of these brackets, your company may still be eligible for SEIS. Learn more.

• What's the risk-to-capital condition?

  The risk-to-capital condition is an HMRC test designed to check if a business is genuinely using SEIS/EIS funding to grow. To qualify, businesses must:

  • Demonstrate clear growth potential
  • Prove to be a genuine risk to investors

  This is to make sure that the investment is for genuine commercial purposes and not an attempt at tax avoidance.

  Learn more.

• Can I use both SEIS and EIS?

  If you fit the criteria for both, there's no reason why you can't go for SEIS funding first and then EIS funding later down the line. But if you do plan to use both, SEIS has to come first. You can't issue EIS shares and then issue SEIS shares after.

  Using them both for the same investment round (also known as a dual round) requires careful considerations, Read more here.

  
  

   

• How much money can a single investor invest under EIS?

  They can invest up to £1 million per tax year (this increases to £2 million if at least £1 million is invested in KICs), and claim up to 30% of this back through Income Tax relief. Learn more.

  
  

   

• Can I issue growth shares as well as EIS?

  Growth shares are perfectly fine to be issued alongside ordinary shares issued for EIS, but they can affect EIS eligibility if the waterfall isn’t structured properly. Customers who adopt the Vestd Articles of Association need not worry. Learn more.

  
  

   

• Can SEIS tax relief be revoked?

  Even if a business initially qualifies, SEIS tax relief can be revoked within three years of issuing shares if disqualifying circumstances arise. Read these possible scenarios.

• What's different for Knowledge Intensive Companies (KICs)?

  Under EIS, KICs have a higher funding limit and company age limit:

  • Up to £20m each year (max total of £40m).
  • Trading for less than 10 years (or less than 10 years since annual turnover exceeded £200,000).

  Learn more.