The EIS paper trail: which records to keep, and for how long
Tero team
The team behind Tero
2 min read
Updated 27 August 2026
SEIS & EISRecord keeping
Key takeaways
- Six things per holding. The EIS3 with its unique investment reference, subscription evidence, issue date, amount, your claim record, and any disposal papers. Everything else is nice-to-have.
- Keep records for the life of the holding plus the enquiry window. Relief spans years. A certificate from 2024 supports a claim tested in 2030. Treat EIS records as permanent.
- A folder per tax year beats a folder per company. Claims are made by tax year, clawbacks are tested by date, and the 6 April boundary decides both.
Tero for angel investors
Let AI do the checking, then keep watching
- Run due diligence on any UK company. Nine AI agents read the registers, the courts and the founders' histories. Every figure cited.
- Add a holding to monitoring. Every filing on it, the week it lands, with what it means for your stake.
- Upload your EIS and SEIS spreadsheet. Export it as CSV. Tero maps the columns, starts every clock and chases the certificates.
Companies HouseFCAGazetteCourtsSanctions
Check a company free First report free, then plans from £10 a month. Descriptive verdicts, never a recommendation.
EIS relief is claimed years after the investment, tested years after the claim, and unwound if the facts change within three years. That makes it a record-keeping exercise wearing a tax costume. Here is the minimal set that keeps you safe.
The six records per holding
If HMRC opens an enquiry into a claim, the questions are precisely these: which company, how much, what date, which certificate, which year. An investor who can answer from a folder closes the enquiry quickly.
How long to keep it
Standard record-keeping guidance for individuals is short, but EIS does not fit it: a certificate from 2024 may support a claim filed in 2026, a clawback test running to 2027, and an exit taxed in 2031. The practical rule: keep EIS records for the life of the holding plus six years. In storage terms this is trivial: a few PDFs per position.
Organise by tax year, not by company
Claims are made per tax year; the annual caps are per tax year; carry-back moves money between tax years; and the 6 April boundary decides which year an investment belongs to. A folder per tax year, with each holding's papers inside, matches how every future question will be asked. (The deadlines guide covers the dates that attach to each year.)
Where this breaks down
The system above works perfectly until the portfolio reaches eight or ten positions across four tax years. At that point every angel discovers the same things. Two certificates never arrived and nobody chased them. One company quietly dissolved with a loss-relief claim inside its deadline. Nobody remembers which claims were carried back. The records were never the problem; the upkeep was.
That upkeep is what Tero's tax relief tracker automates: certificates and UIRs stored per holding, chasing flags for the missing ones, clocks and claim windows computed, and the register watched for the events that create paperwork. Information, not tax advice.
That upkeep is what Tero's tax relief tracker automates: certificates and UIRs stored per holding, chasing flags for the missing ones, clocks and claim windows computed, and the register watched for the events that create paperwork. Information, not tax advice.
From the register
See it on a real filing history
Three UK companies whose priced rounds Tero has read from Companies House, with implied valuation at each allotment.
Questions this guide answers
- Which records do I need for each EIS holding?
- Six: the EIS3 or SEIS3 certificate with its unique investment reference, the subscription evidence, the share issue date, the amount, your claim record, and any disposal papers.
- How long should I keep EIS records?
- For the life of the holding plus the enquiry window. A certificate from 2024 can support a claim filed in 2026, a clawback test running to 2027 and an exit taxed in 2031, so treat EIS records as permanent.
- Should I file EIS records by company or by tax year?
- By tax year. Claims, annual caps and carry-back all work per tax year, and the 6 April boundary decides which year an investment belongs to.
- What is the UIR on an EIS3 certificate?
- The unique investment reference that identifies your subscription to HMRC. It is the one detail a claim cannot do without.
Tero runs these checks automatically.
Twelve sources, one gateway. Diligence in minutes, monitoring forever.