The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) was launched by the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

government on 6 April 2012 in order to encourage

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future Return on capital, return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some specie ...

s to finance

startups A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

by providing

tax break Tax break also known as tax preferences, tax concession, and tax relief, are a method of reduction to the tax liability of taxpayers. Government usually applies them to stimulate the economy and increase the solvency of the population. By this fi ...

s for backing projects they may otherwise view as too risky. SEIS acts as a powerful incentive to encourage investors to invest as the tax relief can allow individual investors to reduce their effective income tax liability, for the year in which they make the investment, to zero.

Examples

Some of the funding for the establishment of the Nc’nean distillery in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

was from SEIS.

References

{{reflist Taxation in the United Kingdom