Tax

EIS and SEIS on Crowdcube and Republic Europe

Q: Is a raise marked EIS certain to qualify?

No. Advance assurance says it may qualify, and relief can be lost later if the company stops meeting the conditions.

Q: Do these rates apply in 2026-27?

The HMRC page carrying them was last updated on 6 April 2026 and gives no year, and the October 2026 papers describe no change to them.

As of 4 Nov 2026, EIS and SEIS are UK tax reliefs that give income tax relief of 30% and 50% on qualifying new shares, with further relief on gains and losses, and some raises on Crowdcube and Republic Europe qualify. The company has to qualify, you have to pay UK tax and generally hold for three years, and you claim with a certificate that reaches you after the raise.

Not investment advice. Early-stage investing is high-risk and illiquid; you may lose all the capital you invest.

Some points here have not been confirmed against a primary source. Each is marked “Not yet verified”, and this page stays out of search until they are.

By Raise Sonar. Published 4 Nov 2026.

Point	SEIS	EIS	Source
Income tax relief	50%	30%	HMRC (opens in a new tab)
Most you can claim on in a tax year	£200,000	£1m, or £2m if at least £1m is in knowledge-intensive companies	HMRC (opens in a new tab)
How long to hold	At least 3 years	At least 3 years	HMRC (opens in a new tab)
Gain on sale after that	Exempt if relief was given and kept	Exempt if relief was given and kept	HS393 (opens in a new tab), HS297 (opens in a new tab)
Using another gain	50% of a gain reinvested is exempt, at most £100,000	A gain can be deferred, with no upper limit, until disposal	HS393 (opens in a new tab), HS297 (opens in a new tab)
Company size	Up to £350,000 gross assets, under 25 employees, up to £250,000 raised	Up to £30m gross assets before the issue, under 250 employees, £10m a year or £20m if knowledge-intensive	SEIS (opens in a new tab), EIS (opens in a new tab)

How much tax relief do you get?

HMRC's rates (opens in a new tab) are 50% on up to £200,000 a year for SEIS and 30% on up to £1m a year for EIS, or £2m if at least £1m of that is in knowledge-intensive companies. So £10,000 into an SEIS company takes £5,000 off your income tax bill and the same into an EIS company takes £3,000, if you owe that much tax. On SEIS, 50% of a gain reinvested is exempt, at most £100,000 (opens in a new tab).

You can treat shares as issued in the previous tax year (opens in a new tab), within that year's limit. Unused allowance does not carry forward. The October 2026 Budget papers (opens in a new tab) describe no change to these rates.

What happens if the company fails?

Relief softens a loss and does not remove it. You reduce your cost by the income tax relief you kept (opens in a new tab), and can set what remains against income of that tax year or the one before. The table is our arithmetic on those rules, for £10,000 invested and lost, with relief fully used and no deferred gain.

On £10,000 lost	EIS	SEIS
Income tax relief taken	£3,000	£5,000
Allowable loss that remains	£7,000	£5,000
Loss relief at 45%, 40% and 20%	£3,150, £2,800 and £1,400	£2,250, £2,000 and £1,000
Money lost at 45%, 40% and 20%	£3,850, £4,200 and £5,600	£2,750, £3,000 and £4,000
Rule	HS297 (opens in a new tab)	HS393 (opens in a new tab)

HMRC's investor page (opens in a new tab) answers yes on loss relief for SEIS, while its manual (opens in a new tab) says EIS shares qualify automatically and SEIS has no automatic entitlement. So the SEIS column assumes the shares meet the general test, and What happens to your shares when a crowdfunded company fails covers how a claim is made.

What makes a company eligible?

The shares must be new, paid for in cash and full-risk ordinary shares (opens in a new tab), with no special rights to the company's assets if it closes. An SEIS company (opens in a new tab) can have up to £350,000 of gross assets and under 25 employees, and raise up to £250,000; an EIS company (opens in a new tab) up to £30m of gross assets before the issue and under 250 employees, and raise £10m a year, or £20m if knowledge-intensive. An EIS company must generally be within seven years of its first commercial sale (opens in a new tab), and an SEIS company's trade at most three years old (opens in a new tab).

The EIS limits doubled from 6 April 2026 (opens in a new tab): annual investment to £10m, or £20m if knowledge-intensive, lifetime investment to £24m, or £40m, and gross assets to £30m before an issue and £35m after. Some Northern Ireland companies keep the old limits. Older pages still show the lower figures.

The October 2026 proposals (opens in a new tab), for shares issued from 6 April 2027, would keep relief on the part of an issue within an EIS limit and allow SEIS and EIS on the same day. They are in a Finance Bill and not yet law.

What is advance assurance, and is it the same as relief?

No. Advance assurance (opens in a new tab) is HMRC's view that an investment may qualify. It does not test you as an investor and HMRC says it is no general endorsement.

Relief comes later. After four months of activity, or for SEIS once 70% of the money is spent, the company files SEIS1 or EIS1 (opens in a new tab). HMRC then authorises it, and the company issues you an SEIS3 or EIS3. HMRC itself does not issue that certificate.

How do you claim?

HMRC's helpsheet (opens in a new tab) gives two routes: your Self Assessment return, or the claim form on the certificate if the return has gone in or you are claiming for the previous year. You can also ask to have your PAYE code changed. The time limit is five years after the 31 January following the tax year.

How does Republic Europe handle it?

An eligible pitch carries a small badge marked EIS or SEIS (opens in a new tab), and Republic wants evidence of advance assurance before completing the round. It says responsibility for eligibility lies with the founders (opens in a new tab).

It then builds the pack for HMRC (opens in a new tab), and certificates are emailed and placed in your portfolio. It says this takes a few months (opens in a new tab), and your investment date is completion and not your commitment. Its fee page (opens in a new tab) lists a 2.5% investor fee and 5% carry, and no fee for tax relief. Our Republic Europe profile has what else we hold.

How does Crowdcube handle it?

Not yet verified Crowdcube's help centre refused our reader on 4 November 2026, so this comes from search results for its pages and has not been read in full. A raise marked EIS Pending (opens in a new tab) has applied and is confirmed in your cooling-off email, and EIS Partial means only part of the raise qualifies.

Not yet verified It prepares and submits the application (opens in a new tab) with the company, says HMRC can take up to 45 working days, and places the certificate in your portfolio. See our Crowdcube profile.

Does holding through a nominee stop relief?

Not by itself. For HMRC, shares held by a nominee (opens in a new tab) count as the individual's for EIS, and the same is true for SEIS (opens in a new tab). We found no separate approval for a platform's nominee in these pages. At Republic Europe the nominee holds legal title (opens in a new tab) and you hold the economic rights.

Not yet verified Crowdcube's page says relief is passed on to underlying investors (opens in a new tab). Its A and B shares (opens in a new tab) have the same economic rights, and we could not confirm how that interacts with relief. SAFE vs equity vs convertible note in crowdfunding explains the classes.

What can lose you the relief?

HMRC lists (opens in a new tab) several events, and you must tell it within 60 days.

Selling early. Selling within three years. How to sell crowdfunded shares covers the routes, and what a sale costs in relief.
The company stops qualifying. It fails the conditions during the qualifying period.
Becoming connected. With associates, holding over 30% of shares, votes or winding-up assets. An SEIS director may still claim.
Receiving value. Getting value back from the company.

Failure is not on that list in itself. HMRC's manual says administration or winding up for genuine commercial reasons (opens in a new tab) does not of itself withdraw EIS relief.

Do these schemes have an end date?

EIS does: it covers shares issued before 6 April 2035 (opens in a new tab). SEIS has none that we could find, as it was made permanent in 2014 (opens in a new tab). You can see how much tax relief can change a stated return in our OfficeRnD case.

Frequently asked questions

Can you claim if you do not pay UK tax?

No. Republic Europe says non-UK taxpayers are unable to take advantage (opens in a new tab), and the relief is set against UK income tax.

Is a raise marked EIS certain to qualify?

No. Advance assurance says it may qualify (opens in a new tab), and relief can be lost later if the company stops meeting the conditions.

When does the three years start?

Generally when the shares are issued, but if an EIS company starts trading later (opens in a new tab), it starts then.

Do these rates apply in 2026-27?

The HMRC page (opens in a new tab) carrying them was last updated on 6 April 2026 and gives no year, and the October 2026 papers (opens in a new tab) describe no change to them.

Where can you see UK raises now?

We track 15 live raises under FCA rules, among all UK raises. Not all of them offer relief, and What is equity crowdfunding? covers the wider risks.

Sources

About the author

Raise Sonar is an information service that tracks equity crowdfunding raises and is not a broker-dealer, funding portal or crowdfunding service provider. Our guides are researched from primary sources, linked above, and a point we could not confirm on one is marked. About Raise Sonar