EIS3 and SEIS3 certificates: when they arrive, why they haven't, and what to do about it

The EIS3 (SEIS3 for SEIS investments) is the company's confirmation, authorised by HMRC, that your subscription qualifies for relief. It carries the company's details, the amount you subscribed, the share issue date, and a unique investment reference (UIR). Your self-assessment claim draws on those details, and HMRC can ask to see the certificate itself.

The company cannot simply print one. The sequence is:

The company must first meet the conditions - broadly, it must have been trading for four months or spent a substantial part of the money raised.

It then files a compliance statement (form EIS1) with HMRC.

HMRC reviews it and, if satisfied, issues an authorisation (EIS2).

Only then can the company produce your EIS3.

Each step has a queue. A well-run company with advance assurance often completes the chain in two to four months; a distracted founder can take a year, and some never file at all. None of this is visible to you unless you ask.

If you invested more than six months ago and have no certificate, chase - politely, specifically, in writing: "Has the EIS1 (or SEIS1) compliance statement been filed, and if so, when do you expect to issue the certificates?" Founders respond to specific questions far better than to "any update on the EIS stuff?". If the company has not filed and shows no intention of doing so, that is worth knowing early: without the compliance statement there will never be relief.

If you had a certificate and lost it, the company can issue confirmation of the details; what your claim really needs is the information on it, especially the UIR, amount and issue date. Keep those recorded somewhere that is not a single sheet of paper in a drawer.

If a company is dissolved before it ever filed its compliance statement, the relief on that investment is generally lost - there is no company left to certify it. This is one more reason the six-month chase matters: the time to force the paperwork is while the company is alive. (Failure after relief has been claimed is a different, better story: see how loss relief works.)

The certificate problem is really a tracking problem: per holding, you need to know invested-on, certificate received or outstanding, and how long it has been outstanding. Tero's tax relief tracker keeps that per position and flags the holdings where the certificate is overdue for a chase - founding members use it free. The claim deadlines guide covers what happens after the certificate arrives. Information, not tax advice; confirm your position with your adviser.