Investing in tax efficient investment propositions such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme should be considered throughout the year.
Despite this, there remains a rush in Q1 every year as investors, advisers and accountants attempt to address tax positions before the end of the tax year.
Although expected, there are some pitfalls that advisers should be aware of when investing during this period. Understanding these factors can lead to clearer decision making and therefore potentially better client outcomes.
Below I will outline some of the, perhaps, key considerations and possible solutions.
Capacity
Leaving investment decisions to the end of the tax year could leave advisers and investors with limited choice as to where to invest. If a product provider or investee company has a predefined capacity limit for the tax year then naturally investing later in the period will increase the risk of capacity exhaustion.
Less choice of propositions could therefore lead to subscriptions being made into propositions which are not as appropriate for the client as those which may have been available earlier in the tax year.
Deal flow
Connected to the issue of capacity is the issue of deal flow. A good EIS manager should have a constant pipeline of investee companies ready to join the portfolio at any point. This not only increases capacity but also provides diversification and new opportunities for repeat investors.
It is the balancing act that all good EIS managers perform, to ensure that there are enough companies in a portfolio to maximise investor capacity but also to ensure that investee companies receive the funding they require.
Having a wide portfolio is one thing, but having companies within the portfolio being under-funded could be detrimental to investors and increase the risk of company failure or stagnated growth.
'Black box' investing
The EIS market was historically awash with propositions where the investment manager collated subscriptions throughout the year via a 'black box' approach and then, at the end of the tax year, deployed in to whatever EIS qualifying companies they could find.
Thankfully, the market has moved on somewhat since then and there is much greater transparency as to what companies, or what type of companies, investors will be invested in.
Ideally investors and advisers should know exactly in to which companies their investment will go.
Investing in small UK businesses is not the same as traditional equities investments. Broadly stating the market or sector in to which an investor is to be invested is entirely appropriate when looking at equities markets but when looking at small unquoted stock, I believe that it is important to understand the opportunities and the risks specific to the Company.
Only with that information can you decide whether the overarching proposition is appropriate for a client.
