'Mini-Budget’ announcements on SEIS and share options

Various announcements from the ‘mini-Budget’ on 23 September have obviously hit the headlines.   Some more welcome news has come in the areas of EIS and SEIS tax reliefs, which many OBN members will have made use of.

On SEIS, a number of relaxations have been announced.  The company will now be able to be up to three years old to offer the reliefs to its investors (increased from two years).    Its maximum gross assets can be up to £350,000 (up from £200,000).  Also the total amount companies can raise is increased to £250,000 (from £150,000), and the maximum amount that any investor can claim annually is increased from £100,000 to £200,000.  All these changes are intended to come in from 6 April 2023. 

On EIS, while there are no changes to limits etc, the Government has confirmed that the ‘sunset clause’, which would potentially have terminated all EIS reliefs from 2025, has now been lifted, and this gives more certainty in the longer term to those companies offering these reliefs.

A couple of changes were also announced on tax-advantaged share options, not the more familiar EMI type but the older ‘Company Share Option Plan’ (CSOP) type, which can be a back up to those companies not able to offer EMI share options.  For CSOP options the maximum value for each optionholder is to be increased from £30,000 to £60,000, and there are also relaxations where the company has more than once class of share, which has previously been problematic for this type of share option.’

Prepared by The OBN ITSIG

For more information about the work of the OBN Investment & Tax Special Interest Group (ITSIG) and the latest Guide to Source of Funding for the Life Sciences - From Seed to Unicorn please click here.