The Enterprise Investment Scheme

The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) encourages investment by individuals in small unquoted trading companies (or via EIS funds, which are see-through for tax purposes) by offering generous tax reliefs to such investors. The tax benefits are attractive but considerable care is needed to obtain them and a range of conditions must be fulfilled by both the company issuing the shares and the individual investor. While EIS relief is appealing, the “devil is in the detail”. For investments in new and very small companies, investors may also wish to consider the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme.