Rejected SEIS Advance Assurance Application - Solved
A Uni spin-out purchased software to develop it to license out to customers. It intended to raise SEIS funding but its advance assurance application was rejected by HMRC under the excluded activities test.
I've written previously about the problem that some startups can encounter when they purchase IP with a view to developing it to sell in the form of licence or royalty fee income (most typically, software).
I won't rehash the technical rules here (see below), suffice to say that this set-up does not always 'play nicely' with the SEIS and/or EIS tax reliefs.
I recently advised on this matter with a startup company who had suffered this exact problem and received a knock-back from HMRC on their SEIS advance assurance application.
