EIS and SEIS Tax Relief Calculator

30% of the amount subscribed for qualifying shares, given as a reduction in your income tax liability for the year. On a £100,000 subscription that is £30,000 off your tax bill, whatever rate you pay. The relief is capped at £1,000,000 of subscriptions a year, rising to £2,000,000 where the amount above £1,000,000 goes into knowledge-intensive companies. Relief cannot exceed the income tax you actually owe for the year, so a large claim against a small liability is partly wasted unless you carry it back.

50% of the amount subscribed, on up to £200,000 a year. A £100,000 SEIS subscription therefore reduces your income tax bill by £50,000, cutting the net cost of the investment in half before any other relief. SEIS is restricted to genuinely early companies: broadly, trading for under three years, with gross assets under £350,000, fewer than 25 employees, and a lifetime SEIS raise of £250,000. Once a company has passed those tests it moves to EIS at 30%.

No, provided income tax relief was given on the shares and has not been withdrawn, and you have held them for at least three years. That is disposal relief, and it exempts the entire growth from UK capital gains tax however large it is. Sell within three years and the income tax relief is clawed back and the gain becomes chargeable. Note that disposal relief only covers the growth — it does not turn a loss into anything, and share loss relief is a separate claim.

If the shares are sold for less than you paid, or become of negligible value, the loss net of the income tax relief already given can be set against income in the year of loss or the previous year, at your marginal rate. On a £100,000 EIS investment that fails completely, the £30,000 income tax relief leaves an allowable loss of £70,000; at 45% that is a further £31,500 of relief. Total recovery is £61,500, so the real loss is £38,500 rather than £100,000 — around 61.5% downside protection for an additional-rate taxpayer.

£1,000,000 of subscriptions attracting relief in a tax year, or £2,000,000 where everything above the first £1,000,000 is invested in knowledge-intensive companies. You can invest more than that — the excess simply carries no income tax relief. The limits are per investor per tax year and are not transferable between spouses, so a couple can each claim their own. The carry-back facility lets you treat a subscription as made in the previous year, but the earlier year's limit then applies to it.

Yes. You can elect to treat some or all of the shares as issued in the previous tax year and claim the relief there instead, subject to that year's overall limit. This is useful when the current year's income tax liability is too small to absorb the claim, or when last year's marginal rate was higher. There is no cap on the amount carried back beyond the earlier year's investment limit. The claim is made on the EIS3 certificate and reported through Self Assessment.

It postpones capital gains tax on a separate disposal by reinvesting the gain into EIS shares. The gain drops out of charge until a chargeable event occurs on the EIS shares — usually their sale. There is no upper limit on the gain that can be deferred, and unlike income tax relief it is not restricted to £1,000,000. SEIS works differently: it gives reinvestment relief, which exempts 50% of the gain reinvested outright rather than merely deferring it, on up to the £200,000 SEIS limit.

You can sell whenever you like, but the three-year holding period governs the tax. Disposing within three years of the share issue — or of the date the company began trading, if later — withdraws the income tax relief and makes the gain chargeable. In practice most EIS companies are illiquid and the question is not when you may sell but when a sale becomes possible, which is why the three-year point rarely constrains a real exit.

Income tax relief requires a UK income tax liability to reduce, so a non-taxpayer gets nothing from the 30% or 50% relief. UK residence is not itself the test — a non-resident with UK-source income taxed here can claim against that liability. Capital gains reliefs need you to be within the UK capital gains net for them to be worth anything. Anyone whose UK liability is unusually low in a given year, including those relying heavily on foreign tax credits, should check the claim can actually be absorbed before subscribing.

Shares in a qualifying unquoted trading company have historically attracted 100% business relief from inheritance tax once held for two years, and most EIS companies qualify. From 6 April 2026 the reforms to agricultural and business property relief restrict 100% relief to a combined allowance — increased to £2.5 million in the announcement of 23 December 2025 — with 50% relief above it, giving an effective rate of up to 20% rather than a full exemption. Business relief is a separate test from EIS qualification, so a company can meet one and not the other.

Relief is withdrawn or reduced, and HMRC will assess the income tax back. Common causes are the company ceasing to carry on a qualifying trade within three years, the investor becoming connected with the company by exceeding 30% of shares or votes, receiving value from the company, or the shares carrying preferential rights they should not have. The company is required to notify HMRC of an event that causes relief to be withdrawn, but the liability sits with the investor, who must also report it through Self Assessment.

An unpaid director is generally fine. A paid director is not, unless the business angel exception applies — broadly, you were not connected with the company before the shares were issued, and the remuneration is reasonable. Being an employee of the company disqualifies you outright. SEIS is more relaxed on directorships but still bars employees. Because these tests apply for a defined period around the issue, a founder-adjacent investor should take advice before accepting any role.

For UK purposes, yes — the reliefs turn on UK tax liability rather than nationality. But the IRS recognises none of it. There is no US equivalent of EIS or SEIS relief, the reduced UK bill also reduces the foreign tax credit available on Form 1116, and the UK-exempt exit is fully taxable in America with no credit to offset it. The shares may also be passive foreign investment companies requiring an annual Form 8621, and EIS funds and VCTs almost always are. Americans should price the investment after US tax, not after UK relief.

SEIS gives more relief — 50% against 30%, plus reinvestment relief exempting half a reinvested gain rather than merely deferring it — but it applies to earlier, smaller and riskier companies, and the annual limit is £200,000 rather than £1,000,000. In practice most investors use both: SEIS for the first £200,000 into very early companies, EIS above that. A company can also raise SEIS first and EIS afterwards, so the same investment round may offer both to different investors.

The company-side limits roughly doubled from 6 April 2026: the annual amount a company can raise rose from £5 million to £10 million, and from £10 million to £20 million for knowledge-intensive companies, with lifetime limits moving to £24 million and £40 million. Gross asset limits rose to £30 million before the share issue and £35 million after it. Investor-side limits were unchanged. Separately, VCT income tax relief was cut from 30% to 20%, and the EIS and VCT sunset clauses were extended to 6 April 2035.

Yes. The company issues form EIS3 (or SEIS3) after HMRC has authorised it, usually once the company has been trading for four months. You cannot claim before you hold it, which is why a subscription late in a tax year often results in the claim landing in the following year's return with a carry-back election. Keep the certificate — HMRC can ask for it, and it carries the unique investment reference you need for the Self Assessment entry.