The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) offers potent tax advantages to investors in early-stage UK companies. These reliefs span Income, Capital Gains, and Inheritance Taxes, and are so attractive that these companies effectively need EIS approval to have any hope of securing investment.
The scheme is governed by exacting and extensive HMRC regulations. The investor, the company and the shares issued all need to meet many stringent requirements. These rules have several routinely-overlooked exceptions and are tested on different dates for different periods of time. Thus vigilance is paramount, and careful ongoing compliance is essential to ensure that tax reliefs are not lost.
In 2021, according to official government statistics, 3755 companies raised £1658mn through EIS, with 36626 investors receiving a total of £460mn tax relief. However, nearly a quarter of these applications were refused by HMRC – an alarmingly high failure rate given the stakes.
A sister scheme for Seed Investments (SEIS) is also available. It offers very similar tax and fundraising benefits to both investors and companies. High volumes of capital are raised and tax relieved using SEIS – in the same period, 2065 companies raised £175mn and 8670 investors secured £85mn in total relief. The prevalent rules are subtly different to those for EIS, but the intimidating complexity and high rejection levels remain.
AORA is currently building EIS and SEIS modules onto its established tax platform. These tools will automate the production of high-quality advice reports to clients and submissions to HMRC. They will be exhaustively diligent in their coverage of every relevant rule, and, being maintained with precise revisions to legislation, will be definitively up to date.
In both cases, AORA’s strategic system will guide the user through an intuitive, fact-finding process, extracting all the necessary information. The evaluations delivered, in a fraction of the time it would previously have taken a human expert, will be exceptionally accurate, consistent and reliable. AORA’s reports, supported by fully-referenced arguments and useful practical advice, will be presented in clearly written, prepopulated documentation, in a format acceptable to the regulator.
AORA's EIS and SEIS tools will help the practitioner automate the preparation of high-quality advice to clients. They will be exhaustively diligent in their coverage of every relevant rule, and, being maintained with precise revisions to legislation, will be definitively up to date.
Any practitioner focusing on EIS or SEIS work will benefit substantially from the virtues of AORA’s industry-leading automation. The acceleration and streamlining of the entire procedure brings dramatic improvements to overall efficiency and productivity. Meanwhile, the empowering and liberating effect on all staff enables a renewed focus on inventive problem-solving, customer care and business development. Ultimately, more clients, and more satisfied clients, mean a compelling opportunity to increase profitability.
AORA's EIS solution is coming soon and is poised to transform YOUR business. Contact us today to learn more.