The Enterprise Investment Scheme (“EIS”) is a government scheme introduced in 1994 to promote investment into smaller, and typically higher risk, companies The EIS provides a range of tax reliefs for investors who subscribe for qualifying shares in qualifying companies.
There are five current EIS tax reliefs available to investors in companies qualifying under the EIS, which are summarised below.
The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) was introduced in 2012, and is similar to the EIS, though to qualify the companies must be smaller and earlier stage than for EIS. Whilst the original schemes were intended to encourage investments into direct companies, there are now a number of Funds and Portfolio services run by professional fund managers, providing a portfolio of earlier stage UK companies.
