Tax Helpsheets
Back to HelpsheetsSeed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS)
This is a similar scheme as EIS, but is aimed at smaller companies.
Tax Reliefs
Income tax relief at a rate of 50% of the amount invested. This is subject to a maximum investment of £100,000 per year (in all SEIS companies).
The shares are subject to a Capital Gains Tax exemption where the SEIS shares are sold after 3 years or more of ownership (as for EIS).
A further Capital Gains Tax exemption is available where you re-invest any gain made from the sale of an asset into SEIS shares. For 2013/14 onwards 50% of the amount re-invested is exempt from CGT.
Individuals Who Qualify For Tax Relief
Directors can qualify, but current employees cannot. Previous employees do qualify.
The individual cannot be connected to the company, in broad terms this means owning less than 30% of the company.
The SEIS Company
The maximum that can be raised through SEIS in any three-year period is £150,000 in total (not an annual limit).
The assets of the company must not exceed £200,000 before the issue of the SEIS shares.
The company must have fewer than 25 full time employees (or equivalent part-timers) immediately before the shares are issued.
The company must be carrying out a qualifying trade. The trade must have been carried out for less than 2 years, whether that was through the company or as an individual.
Companies with subsidiaries can qualify.
There are a number of anti-avoidance rules in place, which are largely derived from the EIS rules.
How We Can Help You
We can advise you on all aspects of qualification for both income tax and capital gains tax reliefs for SEIS investments.
Tax Checklist
Our tax busting checklist is designed to cover all of the common (and a few obscure) legal ways of saving tax. Of course this is a checklist and before implementing any specific ideas you must discuss them with us as everyone’s individual circumstances are different.
The checklist is designed to cover most of the routine items that the small and medium size business owner should be looking out for. There are often more ideas that a pro-active accountant can come up with so please talk to us about your own personal circumstances.
The checklist should take no more than 20 minutes to complete. You can then arrange to meet with us in person to go through any areas where tax saving opportunities have possibly been identified.
Download our Tax-Busting Checklist 2018-19
Personal Tax Organiser
Use our FREE personal tax organiser to organise all your personal tax papers to make completion of your end of year personal tax return easy.
Download our Personal Tax Organiser 2018-19
Download our Personal Tax Organiser 2017-18
Download our Personal Tax Organiser 2016-17
Download our Personal Tax Organiser 2015-16