SEIS limits: company caps, investor limits and the allowance

In short: SEIS is capped at £250,000 of investment per company across its lifetime and £200,000 per investor per tax year, with the company needing gross assets of £350,000 or less, fewer than 25 full-time equivalent employees, and less than three years of trading. The company-side tests are on GOV.UK.

Every threshold in one place

The £250,000 company cap

This is a lifetime figure, not an annual one, and it includes any other de minimis state aid the company has received. Once it is used, further investment has to come through EIS or on non-relieved terms.

The cap is also why an SEIS round is small by construction. A company raising its full SEIS allowance across several investors leaves each holding a modest position, which is exactly the shape an early-stage portfolio wants.

The gross assets test

Gross assets are measured immediately before the share issue, so the SEIS money itself does not count against the £350,000. The test catches companies that have already accumulated significant balance-sheet value, including through earlier non-SEIS funding.

Trading age, not company age

The three-year clock runs from when the qualifying trade began, which can be later than incorporation. A company incorporated well in advance of trading may still qualify. Conversely, a trade carried on by someone else before the company took it over can start the clock earlier than expected.

What happens when a company outgrows the limits

Nothing retrospective, provided the tests were met when the shares were issued and the company keeps its qualifying status through the three-year period. Growth beyond 25 employees or £350,000 of assets after the issue does not undo relief already given. What it does is close SEIS to further rounds, which is the normal path from SEIS to EIS.