A specialist tax firm built for UK founders. We handle advance assurance, every compliance statement, and the unglamorous ongoing work that protects your investors' relief — so you can focus on building the company.
Most general-practice firms treat SEIS and EIS as a side service. We don't do anything else, which means we know the failure modes others learn about when HMRC pushes back.
Get HMRC's pre-clearance before you go to investors. We handle the eligibility review, draft the application, and run the back-and-forth until the YES lands in your inbox.
When the round closes, your investors need their relief certificates fast. We file the compliance statements and produce everything investors ask for in due diligence.
Three years of qualifying conditions to maintain. Most disqualifications happen quietly — a share-class change, a subsidiary, a new revenue line. We watch for the things that strip your investors' relief.
SEIS and EIS aren't one transaction — they're a three-year-plus commitment. Here's the real timeline, with the four points where Trellis takes over.
You set up the company and cap table.
We confirm qualifying status before you spend on legal.
We file with HMRC and handle the response.
You raise. Shares are issued, money lands.
We file SEIS1/EIS1; investors get certificates.
Annual reviews and protection through year three.
Most SEIS and EIS work happens at general-practice accountants where the partner who signs your application files probate next door. The rules change, the case law moves, and a side-service practice doesn't keep up.
Trellis was built to do one thing. Every client works directly with a chartered tax specialist — not a graduate working through a checklist. We charge fixed fees because hourly billing rewards inefficiency, and we tell founders the truth about eligibility before we take their money.
Based in Manchester, working with founders across the UK and internationally.
SEIS (Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme) is for the very early stage — companies under 3 years old with under £350k in gross assets. Investors get 50% income tax relief on up to £200k per year. EIS picks up after that for companies up to 7 years old with under £15m gross assets, offering 30% relief on up to £1m. Most early-stage UK startups raise SEIS first, then transition to EIS for larger rounds.
Strictly no — you can issue shares and apply for compliance statements directly. Practically yes, almost always. Investors expect to see HMRC's pre-clearance letter before wiring money, and angel networks and EIS funds frequently won't engage without it. It's the cleanest way to confirm your company qualifies before structuring a round.
HMRC's published target is 15 working days, but the realistic range is 3–8 weeks depending on workload and how clearly the application is drafted. A well-prepared submission with complete supporting documents almost always lands faster than a rushed one — which is why we spend time on the front end rather than guessing.
The common traps: excluded trades (property dealing, financial activities, legal/accountancy services, energy generation under FiTs), failing the risk-to-capital condition, being controlled by another company, having too many full-time employees, or breaching the gross assets test at issue date. The subtler ones — share-class changes, subsidiary structures, intra-group payments — catch out companies that did everything right at the start.
Yes, and it's straightforward. We send a professional clearance letter to your current firm, they hand over your records, and we pick up from where they left off. Most switches complete within two weeks. There's no fee for the switching process itself.
You have to wait until the company has been trading for at least four months before you can file the SEIS1 or EIS1, and the deadline is two years from the end of the tax year in which the shares were issued, or two years after that four-month trading milestone — whichever is later. Miss it and your investors lose their relief permanently. We track the dates so you don't have to.
Yes, provided the company is UK-incorporated and meets the permanent establishment requirement. Founder nationality and residence don't matter for the company's eligibility. Many of our clients are non-UK founders who've set up a UK entity to access British investors via SEIS/EIS.
Rejections are rare when the application is properly prepared, but they happen — usually because HMRC need more information rather than because the company doesn't qualify. We respond to all queries, restructure the application if needed, and resubmit at no extra cost under our fixed fee. If a company genuinely doesn't qualify, we'll tell you on the first call rather than bill you to find out.
Book a free 30-minute call. We'll tell you straight whether you qualify, what to fix first, and what it'll cost — before you spend a pound.
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