When can SEIS relief be claimed?  What are the conditions for and benefits of SEIS relief? 

Subscribers see SEIS: Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (subscribers)

This is a freeview 'At a glance' guide to the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS).

At a glance

The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) provides tax incentives in the form of a variety of Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax (CGT) reliefs to investors who invest in small start-up, unquoted trading companies.

Income Tax relief

SEIS Reinvestment relief and CGT relief

Loss relief

See: SEIS: Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (subscribers).

SEIS Top FAQs

Find the answers in the SEIS subscriber guide

Overview of the SEIS

The SEIS is modelled largely on the existing Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), with the following key differences:

  1. There is no restriction on directors investing under the scheme, providing they meet the other investor tests.
  2. The amount that a company can raise under the SEIS is limited to £250,000 in total (£150,000 up to 5 April 2023).
  3. Investors will not be able to claim relief until the company has spent 70% of the money raised.
  4. The company must use SEIS investment money within three years.
  5. The company may have subsidiaries.
  6. The eligibility is by reference to the age of the trade rather than the company.
  7. SEIS relief is open to past employees.
  8. From 6 April 2015, the requirement that 70% of SEIS money has to be spent before EIS or Venture Capital Trust (VCT) shares or securities can be issued was abolished.

See: Which investment relief: IR v ER v SEIS v EIS. Non-UK-domiciled individuals may also consider investment via Business Investment Relief.

Qualifying investor

An investor is a qualifying investor if:

Restriction for connected individuals

Qualifying companies

A SEIS company must:

The ‘risk to capital’ condition

This measure is intended to exclude artificial investments that have no real prospect of risk from benefitting from the tax advantages of the Venture Capital (VC) reliefs. It is not designed to affect genuinely entrepreneurial start-ups.

It applies from 15 March 2018 and provides that it must be reasonable to conclude (when the shares are issued):

Useful guides on this topic

SEIS: Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (subscribers)
When can SEIS relief be claimed?  What are the conditions for SEIS relief?  What are the benefits of SEIS relief?

EIS: Enterprise Investment Scheme (subscriber guide)
When can EIS relief be claimed?  What are the conditions for EIS relief?  What are the benefits of EIS relief?

SEIS & EIS: Qualifying trades & activities
What is a qualifying trade or activity for Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) relief? Which trades do not qualify for relief? What are excluded activities?

SEIS & EIS: Share issue checklist
Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) share issue checklist: Issue and allotment of shares.


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