If you are raising your first round, SEIS is usually the single most valuable thing you can offer an investor. This page explains how the schemes work, what your company needs to qualify, and where we come in.
SEIS and EIS do not give your company money. They give your investors tax relief for backing you, which makes your shares considerably easier to sell. An investor putting £50,000 into a qualifying SEIS company gets £25,000 of it back through income tax relief, and pays no capital gains tax if the shares are eventually sold at a profit. If the company fails, loss relief covers a large part of what remains.
That changes the maths on an early stage investment enough that most UK angels simply will not look at a company that cannot offer it. For a first round, treating SEIS as optional is usually a mistake.
SEIS is for the earliest stage and is capped at £250,000 across the company's lifetime. EIS picks up after that, with much higher limits. The order matters: a company cannot take SEIS money once it has issued EIS shares, so where a round is bigger than £250,000 the SEIS shares go out first and the EIS shares follow on a later date.
Published starting prices, with a written scope and a fixed fee agreed before any work begins.
Application form, both HMRC checklists, covering letter, business plan review and all correspondence with the Venture Capital Reliefs Team until a decision.
SEIS1 and EIS1 submissions at the right time, producing the SEIS3 and EIS3 certificates every one of your investors needs in order to claim.
Cap table, articles and share rights reviewed before shares are issued, with the sequencing set out so relief is not lost at the point of issue.
Advance assurance and compliance are separate pieces of work, months apart. Most companies need both across a round, and we scope them together where that is useful.
Most early stage trading companies do. The conditions that catch founders out are usually about timing and structure rather than the business itself.
There are three stages, and they happen months apart.
The ones founders ask on a first call.
Not legally. Relief does not depend on it. In practice most experienced angels and platforms ask for it before committing, so raising without it narrows the pool of people willing to fund you.
Before you have a term sheet. Advance assurance takes two to three weeks and needs a named investor who has agreed to invest, so it sits early in the round rather than at the end. Anything structural that needs fixing is far cheaper to fix at that point.
Under SEIS a paid director can qualify. Under EIS a director generally cannot, unless they were unconnected with the company when the shares were issued and became a director afterwards. This is worth settling before incorporation, because it is very hard to change later.
Depends what was issued and to whom. Some situations are recoverable at the compliance statement stage, others are not. Worth a call either way, and worth having it before the next round rather than after.
Loans do not, including convertible ones. Advance subscription agreements can, but only where they are drafted to HMRC's expectations: no interest, no repayment in cash under any circumstances, no ability to vary or cancel, and a longstop date within roughly six months. Templates lightly amended often fail on one of these.
You get a written scope and, where the matter allows, a fixed fee before any work starts. The first call is free.
Longer pieces on the points founders get wrong most often.
The full guide. What HMRC requires, where relief gets lost, and the limits after April 2026.
Over three years old and still want to raise under SEIS? The clock runs from trading, not incorporation.
The full checklist: company, shares, investor, and the risk to capital condition.
Directors can. The 30 per cent test is what actually stops most founding teams.
Cap table, articles, advance assurance, options and the data room.
Why a UK subsidiary of a Delaware parent cannot raise, and what the options are.
Bring your cap table and tell us where you are in the round. We will tell you what qualifies, what does not, and what needs fixing first.
Book a call →30 minutes, no charge, no pitch
Advance assurance from £750 + VAT
Compliance statements from £850 + VAT
Structuring quoted on scope
Fixed fee agreed in writing before work starts.
Company: £250,000 lifetime, gross assets under £350,000, fewer than 25 employees, trading under 3 years. Investor: 50% income tax relief on up to £200,000 a year, CGT exemption on a qualifying exit.
Company: £10m a year and £24m lifetime, £20m and £40m for knowledge intensive companies. Gross assets up to £30m before the share issue. Investor: 30% income tax relief on up to £1m a year, £2m where the excess is knowledge intensive.
The detailed version, covering where relief gets lost and what HMRC requires.
Read the guideTalk to us before you approach investors. Getting the structure right early avoids costly corrections later.
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