There are some very generous tax breaks and reliefs that encourage investors to back your business. 85% of equity crowdfunding is through
Equity financing
Equity financing requires you to surrender part of your business ownership in return for cash. This includes surrendering part of future profits.
Equity financing covers a wide range of activities, from raising money from family and friends to an initial public offering (IPO), when the stock of a private company is offered to the public for the first time.
Equity financing sources include:
Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding, a form of alternative finance, is a way of funding a business or project by raising money from a large number of people.
Types of crowdfunding include:
Loans
Whether from a bank or an alternative loan provider, loans must be repaid, and some lenders require security.
Alternative loan sources include:
Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme
A company can raise up to £150,000 in total under the government’s SEIS incentive. The investors receive 50% income tax relief through the self-assessment return. An investor can hold up to 30% stake in the start-up and invest up to £100,000 in a single tax year. No capital gains tax is paid on profits earned on shares held for more than three years. If the SEIS investment makes a loss, an individual will also be able to offset the capital loss against income. HMRC operates an Advance Assurance facility which certifies that at the time of application, the business was SEIS-compliant.
Enterprise Investment Scheme
The maximum amount of investment that a qualifying company can receive is limited to £5 million. An investor can invest up to £1 million in a number of companies and secure tax relief of 30%. It is also now possible to carry-back current year EIS investments to the previous year and this means that as a one-off a subscription of £2 million can be made. The investor must retain the shares for a minimum of three years or the relief will be clawed back. There will be no Capital Gains Tax charged on any gain of EIS shares
R&D Tax Credits
Many start-up businesses don’t claim for R&D costs because they think the scheme doesn’t apply to them, or because they are reluctant to approach HMRC who administer the scheme. It is worth speaking to
Innovate UK: R&D Grants
Innovate UK drives innovation across the UK by investing in high-potential innovation projects to accelerate sector growth. In 2016-2017, Innovate UK will invest £561m in innovation.
If you are a UK-based business, you can apply for funding to:
Funding from Innovate UK can range from £25,000 to £10,000,000, depending on the specific conditions for each funding round. In general, the further away from commercialization you are, the more funding you can receive from Innovate UK.
As outlined above the funding options for UK start-up businesses are plentiful especially with the generous tax breaks that are on offer to investors and research and development projects. Further support will be made available from the government as they have promised to review the tax environment for R&D to ensure that the UK tax system is strongly pro-innovation and builds on the introduction of the ‘above the line’ R&D tax credit to make the UK an even more competitive place for companies to do R&D. The Chancellor’s announced boost for R&D is a welcome reassurance for companies who may have been concerned about funding after the referendum vote.
Hooke Biotechnology have secured €5.5m in blended finance from the highly competitive Horizon Europe EIC Accelerator to develop Mera.
Good news for the UK's science and technology sectors! The United Kingdom will join Horizon Europe and Copernicus programmes through a bespoke agreement with the European Union.
You may have seen a host of changes announced in the Spring Budget in March affecting the R&D Tax Relief scheme. But what do they actually mean for your claim, and how can you start preparing for them?