To claim Enterprise Investment Scheme tax relief, you wait for the company you invested in to send you Form EIS3, then use the details on that certificate to make your claim through Self Assessment, by posting the form to HMRC, or by asking for a PAYE tax code adjustment. The relief is worth 30% of what you invested, up to £1 million a year (or £2 million if at least £1 million goes into knowledge-intensive companies), and you have up to five years from the 31 January following the tax year of the share issue to submit the claim.1GOV.UK. Tax Relief for Investors Using Venture Capital Schemes
Get Your EIS3 Certificate First
You cannot claim anything without Form EIS3. This is the compliance certificate that proves the company met HMRC’s qualifying conditions for your share issue. The company receives blank certificates from HMRC after submitting its own compliance statement, then completes and forwards one to each investor.2GOV.UK. Apply to Use the Enterprise Investment Scheme to Raise Money for Your Company
Expect a wait. The company must have been trading for at least four months before it can even apply for its compliance approval, and delays of six months or more after your investment are routine. That is one reason the claim window is generous. If the company never obtains compliance approval, no certificate arrives and no claim is possible, so it is worth chasing the company’s finance contact if the wait stretches beyond a year.
When the EIS3 does arrive, check every field against your own records before you use it. The certificate carries the company’s legal name, the amount you subscribed, the date the shares were issued, and a unique investment reference number that links your claim to the approved funding round. If the subscription amount or share issue date on your claim does not match what the company reported to HMRC, the claim will be rejected or delayed. The back of the form contains separate sections for income tax relief and capital gains deferral relief, plus space to record which tax year you want the relief applied to.
The Three Ways to Submit the Claim
Which method fits depends on whether you already file Self Assessment and how quickly you want the money in your hands.
Through Your Self Assessment Tax Return
If you file Self Assessment, claim on the SA101 supplementary pages that go with your main SA100 return.3GOV.UK. Self Assessment: Additional Information (SA101) Online, the section is under venture capital scheme reliefs; enter the investment details including the unique reference number from the EIS3. HMRC’s system cross-checks the entry against the company’s records and normally applies the relief to your tax calculation within a few weeks of submission.
The filing deadlines are the ordinary Self Assessment ones: 31 January after the end of the tax year for online returns, or 31 October for paper returns.4GOV.UK. Self Assessment Tax Returns: Deadlines
Posting the EIS3 Directly to HMRC
If you do not file Self Assessment, complete the claim section on the back of the EIS3 itself and post it to HMRC.2GOV.UK. Apply to Use the Enterprise Investment Scheme to Raise Money for Your Company HMRC processes the claim and either issues a cheque or adjusts your records. This is the usual route for people on straightforward PAYE income who have no other reason to file a return. Processing takes longer than the digital route.
PAYE Coding Adjustment
Instead of a lump sum refund, you can ask HMRC to fold the relief into your PAYE tax code so it comes through in your monthly pay. For claims of £10,000 or less, you do not need to be registered for Self Assessment to use this method.5GOV.UK. PAYE10045 – Coding Allowances and Reliefs: Enterprise Investment Scheme For claims above £10,000 you must be in Self Assessment, but the relief can still be issued as a coding allowance. Your employer’s payroll then applies the revised code, lifting your take-home pay over the remaining months of the tax year.
Applying the Relief to the Previous Tax Year
You do not have to claim against the tax year in which the shares were issued. EIS rules let you treat some or all of the shares as though they were issued in the previous tax year and set the relief against that year’s income tax instead.6GOV.UK. HS341 Enterprise Investment Scheme – Income Tax Relief (2025) This is useful when your tax bill was higher the year before, or when this year’s investments would push you past the annual cap.
The same £1 million (or £2 million with knowledge-intensive companies) cap applies to whichever year you claim against. To use carry-back, fill in the relevant part of the EIS3 showing how much relief you want applied to the earlier year, then send it to HMRC. One boundary worth noting: relief only reduces your income tax liability to zero. It cannot create a refund beyond the tax you actually owe, and it cannot be set against National Insurance. Any excess relief above your bill is lost unless carry-back can absorb it.
How Long You Have to Claim
Two timing rules bracket the claim. First, the company must have been trading for at least four months before you can submit the claim; this comes from Section 202 of the Income Tax Act 2007.7Legislation.gov.uk. Income Tax Act 2007 Part 5 Second, the outer deadline is five years from the normal Self Assessment filing date (31 January) for the tax year in which the shares were issued. For shares issued in the 2025-26 tax year, the filing date is 31 January 2027, giving you until 31 January 2032 to claim.
That five-year window exists because EIS3 certificates so often arrive late. Do not treat it as a reason to delay. If the company loses eligibility or fails to complete its own compliance work, no certificate will ever come, and the claim vanishes regardless of how much of the window is left.
Conditions That Must Still Hold When You Claim
A valid claim is not just about paperwork. HMRC can withdraw relief if the investor conditions are broken, so it is worth confirming these still apply at the point you file.
You must be “unconnected” to the company throughout the investment: no more than 30% of share capital or voting rights, directly or through associates, and generally no employment relationship. The main exception is for unpaid directors acting as business angels.
You must hold the shares for at least three years from the issue date. If the company had not started trading when the shares were issued, the three-year clock starts from the date it begins its trade.8GOV.UK. HS297 Capital Gains Tax and Enterprise Investment Scheme (2025) Selling or transferring the shares before three years is up, other than to a spouse or civil partner, triggers withdrawal of some or all of the income tax relief. This is the most common way investors lose their claim, especially where a buyout comes early.
The investment also has to have satisfied the risk-to-capital condition that has applied since March 2018: the company must have genuine long-term growth objectives, and there must be a real risk you could lose more capital than you get back including any tax relief.9GOV.UK. Venture Capital Schemes: Risk-to-Capital Condition: An Overview HMRC applies this as a principles-based test rather than by fixed numbers. If HMRC judges the investment to be a tax-planning vehicle rather than a genuine business venture, no relief is due.
Claiming Capital Gains Deferral on the Same Form
The EIS3 does double duty. The back of the certificate carries a separate section for claiming capital gains tax deferral relief, which lets you shelter a gain made on any other asset by reinvesting it (or more) into qualifying EIS shares. The original gain is treated as though it never arose, staying deferred until you dispose of the EIS shares.10GOV.UK. HS297 Capital Gains Tax and Enterprise Investment Scheme (2022)
The reinvestment must fall inside a window starting one year before and ending three years after the disposal that produced the gain. HMRC can extend those limits in some cases. Deferral relief does not depend on qualifying for income tax relief, so investors who are connected to the company can still use it. If the gain arose in a previous tax year, submit the EIS3 alongside your return or send it to HMRC separately.
Reliefs You Do Not Claim on the EIS3
Two other EIS benefits sit outside the claim you make with the certificate, and it is worth knowing where they live so you do not go looking on the EIS3 for them.
Capital gains disposal relief happens automatically when you sell qualifying EIS shares after the three-year holding period, provided your income tax relief was never withdrawn; the gain is simply exempt from CGT and there is no separate claim on the EIS3.8GOV.UK. HS297 Capital Gains Tax and Enterprise Investment Scheme (2025) Loss relief on shares sold at a loss, or on a wound-up company, is claimed either through Self Assessment or a PAYE coding adjustment against the loss figure, which is reduced by any income tax relief you kept.11GOV.UK. VCM20100 – EIS: Disposal Relief: Losses Inheritance tax Business Relief, where available, applies to the estate rather than to you as an investor and is dealt with by the executors, not by anything on the EIS3.