Last weeks ‘Mini-budget’ hikes the SEIS thresholds
Last week’s ‘mini-budget’ certainly contained a few headline grabbing announcements. One less flagged measure, however, is the loosening of the rules relating to the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS).
SEIS is already quite a generous scheme designed to encourage investment in new businesses. In short, qualifying investors get various tax reliefs including income tax relief of 50% on their investment, capital gains tax exemptions on disposal and loss relief.
Companies can currently only receive a maximum of £150,000 through SEIS investments – this is being increased to £250,000 from next April.
Companies can also currently only have gross assets of up to £200,000 when the SEIS shares are issued – this is being increased to £350,000.
SEIS investors can currently only invest £100,000 in a single tax year – this is being increased to £200,000. The full text of today’s plan can be found here.
Charlie Hewlett is a Senior Associate in the Corporate team at Boodle Hatfield and a member of the firm’s specialist Entrepreneurs Group.
