How to claim EIS and SEIS tax relief

Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and does not constitute tax, legal, or investment advice. EIS and SEIS are high-risk investments with real prospects of total loss. Always check the latest HMRC guidance and speak to a qualified tax adviser before relying on any of the figures below.

I first wrote this guide back in 2018, after putting a small cheque into a graphene-composites start-up on Crowdcube and trying to work out how, exactly, the UK tax relief I had been promised was supposed to land in my bank account. Eight years, several Chancellors, and one doubled SEIS limit later, the mechanics of claiming Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) relief have barely changed. Almost everything else has — in your favour.

So this is the 2026 refresh: what EIS and SEIS actually look like today, the quiet reforms that doubled SEIS headroom in 2023 and extended the schemes out to 6 April 2035, the four ways you can actually claim the relief, and the traps that swallow the relief if you blink.

The numbers that matter in 2026

Before we get into forms, here is the headline grid you need before writing a cheque. These are the rates and caps in force for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 tax years.

Two of these rows did not exist when we wrote the original piece. The SEIS investor cap sat at £100,000 until April 2023; it was doubled to £200,000 by the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme expansion. The EIS sunset used to be April 2025 and looked like it might actually bite; Section 11 of the Finance Act 2024 kicked that ten years down the road.

What changed since you last looked

BPR / APR reform (Finance Act 2026, in force from 6 April 2026)

The Autumn Budget 2024 announced — and the Finance Act 2026 (Section 65, Schedule 12) enacted — a structural reform of Business Property Relief and Agricultural Property Relief for inheritance tax. After consultation and a Commons amendment in January 2026 that lifted the cap from £1m to £2.5m, the final shape took effect on 6 April 2026 (HMRC policy paper).

• 100% BPR up to £2.5 million per person, on the combined value of qualifying APR and BPR assets. The allowance is transferable between spouses and civil partners — so a couple can shelter up to £5 million.
• 50% BPR above £2.5 million (effective 20% IHT rate above the cap).
• EIS and SEIS shares qualify as unquoted shares in trading companies and sit inside this regime: full 100% relief on the first £2.5m, 50% above. The 2-year minimum holding period is unchanged.
• AIM-listed shares are treated separately: 50% relief only, no £2.5m allowance, regardless of size.

For an EIS/SEIS investor whose total estate (combined with farmland, other private business shares, agricultural assets) sits above the £2.5m cap, this is a real reduction in the IHT shelter compared with the pre-2026 regime, when there was no cap on 100% BPR. For investors below the cap, nothing changes.

SEIS expansion (April 2023)

• Investor annual cap raised from £100,000 to £200,000.
• Company lifetime SEIS raise cap raised from £150,000 to £250,000.
• Company gross-assets test raised from £200,000 to £350,000.
• Company age limit extended from <2 years of trading to <3 years.
• Employee cap held at fewer than 25.

This is the change that actually moves the needle for retail investors. If you were previously maxing out SEIS at £100,000, you now have twice as much room at the 50% relief rate. For founders, it means SEIS rounds can credibly get a company off the ground rather than just funding a pitch deck.

EIS/VCT sunset extended to 2035 (Finance Act 2024)

EIS and Venture Capital Trust relief were due to expire for shares issued after 5 April 2025. Anyone planning an EIS raise in late 2024 was doing so in a fog of “will the scheme still exist next year?”. Section 11 of the Finance Act 2024, brought into force by SI 2024/897 on 3 September 2024, extended both schemes to cover shares issued before 6 April 2035. EU state-aid sign-off came in the same month, so there is no outstanding approval risk.

EIS company limits expansion (from 6 April 2026)

From the start of the current tax year, the Chancellor expanded the EIS company-side thresholds. The investor side (30% relief, £1m/£2m caps) is unchanged, but the pool of companies that can qualify is now materially bigger.

• Gross-assets test: £30m immediately before the share issue (up from £15m), £35m immediately after (up from £16m).
• Annual company investment limit: £10m per year (up from £5m), £20m for knowledge-intensive companies (up from £10m).
• Lifetime company investment limit: £24m (up from £12m), £40m for KICs (up from £20m).

If you are investing through a syndicate or platform, you may see deals that simply would not have qualified two years ago. Check the company confirmation carefully.

How EIS/SEIS income tax relief actually works

The mechanic is the same for both schemes. You subscribe for new ordinary shares in a qualifying company. The company applies to HMRC for advance assurance and, after the shares are issued, sends you an EIS3 or SEIS3 certificate. You then claim relief against your Income Tax bill in the year of investment — or, if you prefer, in the prior tax year via carry-back.

Two rules people keep forgetting:

• You can only claim relief up to the amount of Income Tax you actually owe. If you invest £10,000 in SEIS but your tax bill is £4,500, you will recover £4,500, not £5,000. The missing £500 is not carried forward; it simply evaporates.
• The relevant tax year is the year the shares are issued, not the year the certificate arrives. Companies often take months to send EIS3 certificates after the raise closes. You claim against the issue date — which is why carry-back exists.

Companies must also hold the shares for at least three years for the relief to stick. Sell before that and HMRC claws the relief back; their withdrawal notice is not something you want in the post.

Step 1: Get your EIS3 or SEIS3 certificate

You cannot claim anything until the company sends you this one-page document. Typical timeline:

1. The round closes and shares are issued (the “issue date” on the certificate).
2. The company trades for at least four months — a statutory requirement before HMRC will process the EIS1/SEIS1 compliance statement.
3. The company files the EIS1/SEIS1 with HMRC.
4. HMRC issues EIS2/SEIS2 authorisation to the company, typically 4–8 weeks later.
5. The company sends you the EIS3/SEIS3 certificate (pages 3 and 4 of the standard form).

In practice, between share issue and certificate, six months is normal, nine is not unusual. If you invested in March and the company closed its round in April, your certificate may well not arrive before your Self Assessment deadline. That is exactly what carry-back is for.

Step 2: Pick your claim method

There are effectively four ways to get the relief through. Most investors only ever need one.

Option 1 — Hand the certificate to your tax adviser

If you file via an accountant, this is the simplest path: scan the EIS3/SEIS3 to a PDF and send it over. They will add the relief in the appropriate box of your Self Assessment. If your return is already filed, they will amend it; HMRC will then refund any overpaid tax into your bank account, usually within 4–6 weeks.

If your affairs are at all untidy — EIS investments on top of rental income, foreign property, or a partnership current account in a French SCI — this is the option I would default to. See also our French tax deadline calendar if you are juggling both jurisdictions.

Option 2 — Claim online in your Self Assessment

If you file your own return, the online journey is:

1. Log in to the HMRC Self Assessment portal via your Government Gateway.
2. In the Tailor your return section, answer Yes to the question about other tax reliefs (“Do you want to claim other tax reliefs and deductions?”).
3. Go to section Other tax reliefs and deductions. For EIS, enter the total subscription amount in “Subscriptions for shares under the Enterprise Investment Scheme”. For SEIS, use the SEIS box directly above it.
4. HMRC does not require you to attach the EIS3/SEIS3, but keep the originals — HMRC can ask up to five years after 31 January following the tax year of claim.

The system does not check anything in real time; you can comfortably enter the number and submit. Errors surface later, not at the moment of filing.

Option 3 — Carry back to the prior tax year

This is the option that saves investors who receive their EIS3 after the Self Assessment deadline for the year of investment. You elect to treat some or all of the investment as though it were made in the previous tax year. Useful when:

• You invested in March or April and the certificate did not arrive in time.
• You had a higher tax bill last year than this year and want to recover at the higher marginal rate.
• You have already used your annual EIS/SEIS headroom in the current year.

Mechanically, it is the same claim, filed either on an amended prior-year return or in the carry-back boxes of the current return. If your prior-year Self Assessment is settled, HMRC will reopen it and refund the difference.

Option 4 — Send the EIS3/SEIS3 directly to HMRC

Pages 3 and 4 of the EIS3 form are a claim form you can complete and post to HMRC directly. Situations where this actually makes sense:

• No Self Assessment requirement — if you are a PAYE-only taxpayer, HMRC can process the paper claim without you having to register for Self Assessment.
• PAYE code adjustment — if the certificate arrives early in the tax year and you would rather collect the relief month by month in your pay packet than wait until the end.
• Deferral relief claims alongside income tax relief — technically doable online, but HMRC tends to process the paper form faster for the compound claim.

For everyone else, Options 1 and 2 are faster. I have personally only ever used Option 1.

Worked example

Imagine you owe £5,000 in Income Tax for 2025/26 and invest £3,000 in a qualifying SEIS round in the same year. The maths:

• SEIS relief rate: 50%.
• Relief: 50% × £3,000 = £1,500.
• Post-relief tax bill: £5,000 − £1,500 = £3,500.

If you already paid the £5,000 via PAYE before claiming, HMRC refunds £1,500 directly to your bank account, typically within 4–6 weeks of processing the claim. If you had no tax liability that year, the relief is wasted — it cannot be carried forward to a future year (only carried back one).

Now add the downside protection. If the company fails and your shares become worthless, loss relief lets you offset the net loss (£3,000 invested − £1,500 already recovered = £1,500 “at risk”) against either your income or capital gains of the year. At the 45% additional-rate band, that is a further £675 recovered — leaving a worst-case net loss of £825 on a £3,000 ticket. The same downside maths is why SEIS, in particular, is so prized by investors willing to take the dispersion of returns that comes with seed-stage investing.

Common mistakes that cost people their relief

• Claiming before the EIS3/SEIS3 arrives. HMRC will reject it; you must hold the certificate in hand.
• Mismatched amounts. The number in the Self Assessment box must exactly match the amount on the EIS3.
• Selling before the three-year holding period. HMRC will withdraw the relief and raise a discovery assessment plus interest.
• Taking “value” from the company. Loans to you, directors’ fees above arm’s length, preferential share redemptions — any of these can invalidate the relief retrospectively.
• Being connected to the company. If you, with associates, hold more than 30% of the company’s share capital or voting rights, or are an employee (other than a director paid by reasonable remuneration), you are not eligible.
• Missing the four-year window. You have until the fifth anniversary of 31 January following the tax year of investment to submit the claim. After that, the door closes permanently.

Where EIS/SEIS fits in a broader portfolio

This blog spends most of its time on French property structures and the cross-Channel buying process, which sits at the opposite end of the risk spectrum from a seed-stage equity ticket. The two complement each other more than you would think:

• A French SCI throws off rental income and long-run capital appreciation with low single-digit volatility.
• EIS and SEIS deliver the opposite pay-off profile — binary outcomes, total losses very possible, outliers that return 10x in five years.
• The income-tax relief on the SEIS/EIS side is, in effect, a Treasury-funded cushion that sits on top of your underlying property yields. At 50%, SEIS turns a £200,000 allocation into a £100,000 net exposure before any capital outcome.

Do not confuse the relief with the underlying investment quality. SEIS is not a free lunch; it is a loss-limiter on an asset class with a meaningful probability of going to zero. The maths works best when you have a tax bill to offset, can tolerate the illiquidity, and have diversified across 10–20 tickets rather than one.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to claim EIS or SEIS relief?

You have until the fifth anniversary of 31 January following the tax year of investment. For shares issued in 2025/26, the deadline is 31 January 2032. Late claims are rejected outright.

Can I claim EIS relief if I live overseas?

You can subscribe from anywhere, but you can only claim relief to the extent you have a UK Income Tax liability. A British expat with no UK income has nothing to offset and therefore no relief. Rental income from a UK property, dividends from UK companies held outside an ISA, or UK-taxable employment income all count.

What happens if the company fails before year three?

If the company becomes insolvent rather than you voluntarily selling, the income-tax relief is not withdrawn, and you can additionally claim loss relief on the unrelieved portion. This is the downside-protection mechanic that makes EIS/SEIS distinctive as an asset class.

Can I invest via my limited company?

No. EIS and SEIS relief are only available to individuals subscribing for shares in their own name, not corporate investors. The Corporate Venturing Scheme that previously gave a parallel relief to companies was closed in 2010.

Are crowdfunding platforms like Crowdcube, Seedrs, or Republic still EIS-eligible?

The platform itself is not what qualifies for relief; each underlying company does. Most deals advertised on these platforms are structured as EIS or SEIS, and the platform will mark the deal page clearly. Always confirm the company has HMRC advance assurance before investing if you are relying on the tax treatment.

Does SEIS or EIS relief affect my ISA allowance?

No. EIS/SEIS subscriptions sit entirely outside the ISA system. Your £20,000 ISA allowance is unaffected.

The bottom line

The mechanics of actually getting the cheque in your bank account are the same as they were in 2018 — wait for the certificate, claim in Self Assessment (or carry it back), keep the paperwork. What has changed is how much headroom you have (SEIS doubled), how long the scheme will keep running (EIS out to 2035), and how many companies qualify on the other side (EIS limits tripled in April 2026).

If you were holding off on a SEIS ticket because you had already used your £100,000 allowance in 2022, your allowance is now £200,000 and has been since April 2023. If you were worried the EIS scheme might not exist next year, it will exist for another nine. And if you have still never claimed, start with Option 1 — the accountant route is not glamorous, but it is the one that reliably works.

None of the above constitutes tax, legal, or investment advice. EIS and SEIS are high-risk investments; always consult a qualified adviser before acting on any of the figures or processes described.