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SEIS, EMI & R&D Advice

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I'm a UK tax adviser working with founders and high-net-worth individuals to get the most out of the UK's headline tax reliefs โ€” primarily SEIS, EIS, EMI, and R&D tax credits.

On the SEIS/EIS side, I work with founders to structure their fundraises so UK investors can claim relief โ€” including overseas-parented companies (Delaware C-corps in particular) establishing a qualifying UK permanent establishment, OS IN01 registrations, HMRC Advance Assurance, and the compliance cycle through to investor SEIS3/EIS3 certificates. With the April 2026 Budget doubling EIS limits to ยฃ10m annually and ยฃ24m lifetime (ยฃ20m / ยฃ40m for KICs), there's significantly more headroom for growth-stage companies than there's been in years.

On EMI, I help companies design and implement Enterprise Management Incentive option schemes โ€” the UK's most tax-advantaged way to grant options to employees. That covers eligibility, valuation agreements with HMRC, scheme rules, and the ongoing compliance to keep the scheme qualifying. Done well, EMI lets employees benefit from BADR's relaxed 5% rule on exit, with CGT at the BADR rate rather than full income tax โ€” a meaningful advantage in any equity story.

On R&D tax credits, I help companies identify and substantiate qualifying activity under the merged RDEC scheme and the enhanced regime for R&D-intensive SMEs โ€” particularly important for tech and AI businesses where qualifying spend is often understated and documentation requirements have tightened considerably under HMRC's stricter compliance posture.

Feel free to book in a call - https://calendly.com/upstacktax/30min

  • 2 weeks later...
  • Administrator
On 08/05/2026 at 14:13, Misha Patel said:

I'm a UK tax adviser working with founders and high-net-worth individuals to get the most out of the UK's headline tax reliefs โ€” primarily SEIS, EIS, EMI, and R&D tax credits.

On the SEIS/EIS side, I work with founders to structure their fundraises so UK investors can claim relief โ€” including overseas-parented companies (Delaware C-corps in particular) establishing a qualifying UK permanent establishment, OS IN01 registrations, HMRC Advance Assurance, and the compliance cycle through to investor SEIS3/EIS3 certificates. With the April 2026 Budget doubling EIS limits to ยฃ10m annually and ยฃ24m lifetime (ยฃ20m / ยฃ40m for KICs), there's significantly more headroom for growth-stage companies than there's been in years.

On EMI, I help companies design and implement Enterprise Management Incentive option schemes โ€” the UK's most tax-advantaged way to grant options to employees. That covers eligibility, valuation agreements with HMRC, scheme rules, and the ongoing compliance to keep the scheme qualifying. Done well, EMI lets employees benefit from BADR's relaxed 5% rule on exit, with CGT at the BADR rate rather than full income tax โ€” a meaningful advantage in any equity story.

On R&D tax credits, I help companies identify and substantiate qualifying activity under the merged RDEC scheme and the enhanced regime for R&D-intensive SMEs โ€” particularly important for tech and AI businesses where qualifying spend is often understated and documentation requirements have tightened considerably under HMRC's stricter compliance posture.

Feel free to book in a call - https://calendly.com/upstacktax/30min

Hi Misha,

Sorry for the slow reply, Iโ€™ve been travelling over the last couple of weeks and only just catching up properly now.

Really appreciate you taking the time to put this together โ€” thereโ€™s some seriously valuable insight here, especially around SEIS/EIS structuring and the changes coming in 2026. Weโ€™ve got a lot of founders in the community navigating fundraising, EMI schemes and R&D claims, so this is definitely relevant to people here.

The overseas parent / UK PE angle is particularly interesting as weโ€™re seeing more founders looking at US structures earlier on now.

Thanks again for sharing this and the Calendly link โ€” Iโ€™m sure a few members here will find it useful.

User number 1 - in 5 years this will hopefully mean something

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