HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has published the latest Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) statistics – including new data about advance assurance requests.
SEIS is the government’s flagship tax incentive for investors is small start-up companies.
The scheme started in April 2012.
Since then 10,460 companies have asked for advance assurance. This is vetting by HMRC to check if the business meets SEIS qualifying criteria, which allows investors to claim the tax incentives.
Tax breaks include a 50% income tax refund against tax paid in the year of investment. This can be carried back to a previous tax year.
The tax boost allows investors to claim up to £50,000 of a £100,000 investment each tax year.
SEIS tax boost for investors
Other tax benefits include shares in SEIS companies growing free of capital gains tax and loss relief on shares in a failed start-up.
The latest SEIS investment statistics are for the 2014-15 tax year.
HMRC says 2,185 companies were funded through SEIS to the tune of £168 million. The previous tax year, 2,090 companies picked up £170 million in investment.
The overall funding figure for 2014-15 was split between 1,715 start ups receiving first time funding and 470 on a second finance round.
The average investment was £77,000 a company.
SEIS start-ups raise £424 million
Since SEIS was launched, 4,660 start-up businesses have raised £424 million from SEIS.
In 2014-15, HMRC processed 2,905 advance assurance requests, with 2,570 (88%) approved.
Overall, since 2012-13, 10,460 advance assurance requests have been process and 8,855 approved.
“SEIS was introduced in 2012 and is intended to recognise the particular difficulties which very early stage companies face in attracting investment by offering generous tax reliefs,” said the HMRC report.
HMRC has also revealed investment data for the Enterprise Investment Scheme. EIS offers similar tax breaks than SEIS, but at a lower rate to reflect a less risky investment environment.
Since 1993-94, EIS has seen 24,500 companies raise £14 billion of investment.
In the last tax year, 3,130 companies sourced £1,163 million through EIS – the highest amount raised in a tax year since record started.
Last year, HMRC processed 3,555 advance assurance requests from EIS companies, which was 385 up on the previous year.
SEIS Guide
The guide is downloadable from SEIS.co.uk , and provides an easily digestible source of vital information for anybody who could benefit from the scheme.
