Cross-Border Business

Can non-residents claim SEIS or EIS relief?

Answered by Jordan Onraet-Wells, Founder & Chartered Tax Adviser (CTA). Published 9 August 2026. Last reviewed 9 August 2026.

The short answer

In principle yes, in practice usually not. There is no residence requirement to claim EIS or SEIS income tax relief, but the relief can only reduce a UK income tax liability, so a non-resident with little or no UK income tax to pay effectively gets no income tax relief, and unused relief cannot be carried forward. A non-resident who still has a UK tax bill, for example from UK rental profits, can set the relief against that liability, capped at its size. The capital gains reliefs matter even less for most expats, because a non-resident's gain on ordinary company shares is generally outside UK CGT anyway.

EIS gives 30% income tax relief on up to £1 million invested a year (up to £2 million if the excess goes into knowledge-intensive companies); SEIS gives 50% on up to £200,000.
HMRC's guidance is blunt: you can only claim relief against the amount of Income Tax you have to pay in the UK, and unused relief cannot be carried forward.
Becoming non-resident does not by itself claw back income tax relief already received; the residence trap sits with EIS deferral relief instead.
A deferred gain is revived if you cease to be UK resident within three years of the shares being issued, unless you go abroad to work and return within three years still holding the shares.
A UK tax-free EIS or SEIS gain can still be fully taxable in the country where you are resident, because foreign jurisdictions rarely recognise the UK exemption.

The income tax relief needs a UK tax bill to bite on

The old ordinary residence condition was removed, so there is no separate rule that you must be UK resident to claim. The constraint is arithmetic: the relief works by reducing the income tax you owe in the UK, and HMRC confirms you can only claim relief against the amount of Income Tax you have to pay in the UK and cannot carry unused relief forward. An expat with no UK income tax to pay who invests £100,000 into an EIS company expecting £30,000 off their bill finds there is no liability for the 30% to reduce; the relief is simply lost, not refunded and not rolled forward. A non-resident with UK rental profits or other UK-taxable income can use the relief, capped at the size of that bill.

The CGT exemption often solves a problem expats do not have

Gains on EIS or SEIS shares can be free of UK Capital Gains Tax if you held them at least three years and received income tax relief that was not withdrawn. But a non-resident's gain on ordinary company shares is generally outside UK CGT anyway, so for many expats the headline exemption adds nothing on the UK side. The question that actually matters is how the gain is treated where you are tax resident: a jurisdiction that taxes worldwide gains will usually not recognise the UK exemption, so a sale that is UK tax-free can still be fully taxable abroad. Note also that the CGT exemption is built on the income tax relief having been received and not withdrawn, so losing one can take the other with it.

The real trap: EIS deferral relief and emigration

EIS deferral relief postpones a chargeable gain reinvested into EIS shares, with no upper limit, and it does not depend on having a UK income tax liability. But a deferred gain is revived if you cease to be UK resident within three years of the shares being issued, unless you go abroad to take up employment and return within three years still holding the shares. Leaving inside that window can crystallise the very gain you deferred. Beyond three years, the temporary non-residence rules can still pull gains realised or revived abroad into the year you return, depending on your dates under the Statutory Residence Test. If your residence status is changing, map it before investing, not after: Horizon does exactly this cross-border work on fixed fees agreed upfront, with complex work from £750, and a free clarity call is the place to start.

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Sources and further reading

This is general information for the 2026/27 UK tax year, not personal tax advice; speak to a Chartered Tax Adviser about your own position.

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