(S)EIS – A case for immediate reform?

Every business is and will continue to feel the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic. All founders will be reassessing the fundamentals of their businesses to maximise cash runways in order to simply keep the lights on. In this environment, funding needs for innovative early stage SMEs will be more acute than ever.

The government have set out plans to support businesses during this time, however with the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan and Job Retention schemes unlikely to meaningfully benefit the vast majority of these businesses, the options are limited for start-up SMEs.

Along with HMRC’s unexpected guidance earlier this year on Advance Subscription Agreements, where such agreements should now have a long stop date of no more than six months, the current situation could vastly impact our country’s innovators.

In order to ensure these businesses do not fall through the cracks during this time of unprecedented economic uncertainty, there are growing calls for the government to significantly increase the (S)EIS tax incentives available to investors to ensure their line of funding continues to play its vitally important support role. SMEs are the backbone of any economy; supporting them through this period will ensure they thrive, create jobs and power economic growth in the future.

ForburyTech and Forbury Investment Network are available to support any founders grappling with the current uncertainty – please feel free to reach out.