VCM60320 - Venture Capital Schemes Manual: venture capital schemes: the Social Investment Tax Relief: advance assurance requests: the SITR schemes and eligibility
To be eligible for Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR) a social enterprise must be one of the following:
- a community interest company
- a community benefit society that is not a charity, but with an asset lock
- a charity that is recognised by HMRC, which can be a company or a trust
- an
»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp social enterprises receiving investments under the SITR are recipients of State aid. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýappre are two different types of State aid within the SITR rules, depending on the age and investment history of the social enterprise. Each State aid has different day-to-day investment limits.
»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp ‘de minimisâ€� aid for older social enterprises
For investments made on or after 6 April 2017, an SITR investment counts as ‘de minimis aidâ€� if, broadly, the social enterprise’s trade is over seven years old. A social enterprise may receive a maximum amount of de minimis aid of 200,000 euros over a rolling three year period, roughly equating to a total SITR investment of 344,000 euros, ending with the latest aid award. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp limit includes any de minimis aid received in that period, including investment under the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS).
»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýappre is also a lifetime investment limit of £1.5 million.
All SITR investments made before 6 April 2017 were made under the de minimis scheme.
General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER) risk finance aid for newer social enterprises
For investments made on or after 6 April 2017, SITR investments count as GBER risk finance aid broadly if the social enterprise’s trade is less than seven years old. »Ê¹ÚÌåÓýappre is no limit on the amount of an individual GBER investment, subject to the lifetime limit for each social enterprise of £1.5 million.
»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp lifetime limit for State aid
»Ê¹ÚÌåÓýapp maximum amount of SITR investments a social enterprise and its subsidiaries may receive in its lifetime is £1.5 million. As well as SITR investments, other State aid investments such as SEIS, EIS and other risk finance investments count towards the maximum.