One year on: How the new EIS and SEIS regime is bedding down

Ahead of this year's Budget

A year ago, Chancellor Philip Hammond introduced sweeping changes to the rules governing the enterprise investment scheme (EIS) and seed enterprise investment scheme (SEIS).

His aim was to exclude the structured tax avoidance schemes set up to take advantage of tax efficiencies and instead encourage the growth businesses that are critical to the country's future. At a stroke, his 2017 Budget brought down the curtain on asset-backed capital-preservation vehicles and shifted the focus to genuine growth-oriented companies and through a further qualification - knowledge-intensive companies - which included minimum proportions of relevant graduates on the payroll if firms were to qualify.  As this year's Budget approaches, it may be time to take stock and ask ...