Answer
What documents do I need for SEIS advance assurance?
You need a business plan, latest accounts or forecasts, your articles of association and any shareholders agreement, the proposed share issue terms and use of funds, current shareholdings, and details of at least one prospective investor. Nothing needs to be audited or lawyer-drafted. What matters is that the documents agree with each other.
The checklist
| Document | Required? | What HMRC looks for |
|---|---|---|
| Business plan | Yes | The trade, the market, and genuine growth intentions |
| Latest accounts or forecasts | Yes | Consistency with the amount being raised |
| Articles of association | Yes | Share classes and any preferential rights |
| Shareholders agreement | If one exists | Terms that might make the investment low-risk |
| Current shareholdings | Yes | Control, connected persons and group structure |
| Proposed share issue details | Yes | Amount, share class, price and timing |
| Use of funds | Yes | Spend that grows the trade, not acquisitions or debt repayment |
| Prospective investor details | Yes | A real named investor with contact details |
| Prior grants or state aid | If applicable | Whether headroom under the limits is reduced |
| Risk-to-capital statement | Strongly advised | Real risk to the investor's money |
What trips applications up
- A plan written for investors that never states what the money is spent on
- Forecasts that do not reconcile with the raise amount
- Articles granting investor protections that make the shares look low-risk
- No prospective investor named
- Subsidiaries or group activity left out
- Trading start date or first commercial sale asserted but not evidenced
How we collect it
Our application form walks through all of the above in one pass, including an optional pitch deck upload, and we come back to you only where something is missing or inconsistent. You do not need to draft anything for HMRC yourself.
Primary sources
What Mida OS actually does
We are a boutique SEIS and EIS consultancy in the UK. We check your eligibility, draft and file the advance assurance application with HMRC, and answer HMRC's questions until the letter arrives. Fixed fee of £449 for SEIS, EIS or both, and every application we have filed has been approved. After your round closes we file the SEIS1 or EIS1 compliance statement and issue SEIS3 and EIS3 certificates at £50 per investor.