The April 2026 EIS,
VCT & BIR changes — explained.

From 6 April 2026 the company-level investment limits for EIS and VCT are increased so more scaling UK ventures qualify, while the rate of VCT income tax relief is reduced from 30% to 20%. Business Investment Relief (BIR) continues with transitional rules covering pre-6 April 2025 foreign income and gains until 5 April 2028, after which no new BIR claims are permitted from 6 April 2028.

Yes. The Government has legislated higher company-level annual and lifetime EIS and VCT limits from 6 April 2026, intended to support knowledge-intensive and capital-intensive scaling businesses that previously hit the older caps before reaching commercial viability.

The headline April 2026 changes target EIS, VCT and BIR. SEIS limits (£250,000 company raise, £350,000 gross asset cap, under-3-years trading, 25 employees, £200,000 individual investor cap) remain in place. Founders should still plan SEIS now and EIS afterwards under the new limits.

The reduction from 30% to 20% reflects HM Treasury's rebalancing of the VCT regime against rising company-level limits. The CGT exemption on disposal of qualifying VCT shares is preserved, and tax-free dividends from VCTs continue, so VCTs remain investable — but the upfront relief is less generous from 6 April 2026.

BIR continues for qualifying investments made with pre-6 April 2025 foreign income and gains under transitional rules until 5 April 2028. From 6 April 2028 it will no longer be possible to claim BIR on new investments or reinvestments. Investors holding remittance-basis funds should plan deployment well before that sunset.

Existing Advance Assurance is not invalidated by the April 2026 changes. However, companies planning fresh raises after 6 April 2026 should revisit their use-of-funds, risk-to-capital narrative and share class structure to take full advantage of the higher company limits and to reflect the current HMRC evaluative framework.

HMRC's published service standard remains 4–8 weeks, often with one or more rounds of technical follow-up. Well-structured submissions with a clean risk-to-capital narrative, defensible IP positioning and aligned share classes can be approved materially faster — our most recent SEIS Advance Assurance was approved in 20 days on first read with zero queries.