I remember being told on a tax course about some guys starting a tech company and they had successfully applied for SEIS/EIS (I forget which) their £1 subscription. At least I think that is correct. I'm trying to see whether the directors of my tech startup client can do similar.
The co was incorporated in Aug 19 with director 1 owning 1 x £1 share at par. The company basically didn't do anything until Nov 19, when there was a friends & family investment round of c£75k. Director 1 invested another £30k, (new) director 2 invested £15k and went on the payroll as a working director, (new) director 3 invested £10k and went on the payroll as a working director and various friends & family invested the rest. To slightly complicate things further, D1 (founder) is the father of D3. It was always going to be D3's company, he was in a restrictive covenant but wanted to snap up the company name so used his dad to do so. D3 is the CEO. D2 is the CTO. If D1 wasn't the 'founder' and father of D3, he'd fit the EIs definition of Business Angel - significant 'if', but gives you his involvement.
In Mar 20, we successfully applied for EIS AA for about £300k of investment (outside investors) which was received in 3 tranches Apr 20 - Apr 21.
The investment made by the friends and some of the family members I believe would be an allowable investment, but given that the application would be made now (after £300k EIS investment received), would we still be able to claim it as SEIS given that it was the first round of investment?
Having ready HMRC's manual on both SEIS and EIS, I think that director 1 would've been allowed relief as a business angel, but as the father of director 3, relief would be denied. I'm a little unsure about the 2 working directors D2 & D3, but think they'd get relief under SEIS but not EIS? But then in the EIS manual is spoke about them not having had a relationship with the company prior to investment - does D3 break this by his father (D1) being the sole director/shareholder at that point?
So 2 questions really:
1. First round of investment would presumably be able to be under SEIS despite being claimed after a round of EIS?
2. Which if any, of the directors can get SEIS/EIS relief?
Thanks
