SEIS Portfolio Starter Tips?

[bernie]

Hello,

I am thinking of starting a portfolio of SEIS funds in a future tax year, and was hoping some people on this board could help me create a rough list of things to look out for.

In context, I intend to use up my ISA allowance and make use of my full pension allowance before investing in SEIS. And I intend to invest around 25% of my annual income.

I see there are a few SEIS funds on Wealthclub, but I don't know what to look for when reading about them:

https://www.wealthclub.co.uk/seis-investments/

[uspaul666]

Interesting. I’ve dipped a toe in SEIS via seedrs.com and I think my performance excluding tax relief is pretty much zero. So out of ten investments, after the three years, three have gone bust, five have been flat and two have gone up. Of the non bust ones, only three have willing buyers the other four I’m stuck with. Well something like that anyway. Perhaps seedrs.com is a market for chumps like me?

[UncleEbenezer]

I've made two SEIS investments[1] via seedrs. One is doing nicely: I've sold half my stake at a profit north of 100%. The other went bust.

I treat seedrs investments as, financially speaking, a flutter. I bet on startup companies just as some people bet on horses. With the added satisfaction of selecting companies on my own criteria: are they deserving of my support?

Can't see myself investing in a SEIS fund. All the risk, but missing the satisfaction. If I had the money for bigger stakes than my seedrs flutters, I think I'd go for something more hands-on, like an angel network.

[1] along with a larger number of EIS and non-EIS investments.

[Vulgaris]

Entirely with Uncle E here, though I've made about 15 bets. It's punt money.... Advantages, vs horses are (a) the interest lasts longer than 5 furlongs and (b) after 50% initial relief and income tax relief on losses, a £1 bet is costing only 27.5-30 pence, which isn't bad.

Despite 4 total write-offs so far, I appear to be 100% up, or twice that if you count in the tax relief, with the gains concentrated in 3 companies. Needless to say, a failure among these, or a takeover/flotation on AIM could radically change the position for worse or better.

A current problem is that Seedrs seems to have fewer SEIS launches and more EIS ones; also that so many are just apps designed by a boy in a garret, likely to go nowhere.

[formoverfunction]

I've backed SEIS & EIS projects on Seerds, maybe in total around 80.
At the moment I'm showing c50% capital profit over a 5 year period, with tax offset along the way.
My strategy was to put a fixed amount in a number of raises, then be very selective about pre-emptions.
Now, 5 years later, I've got a portfolio of 10 businesses that are doing OK and for them I'm happy to pick up additional shares in the 2ndry market.
I'm seeing x multiple returns on my original investments, diluted by the "adds".
I've made more from buying high yielding listed PE funds, but it has been more interesting and resulted in a few business partnerships.
I was working on a success of 1 in 16.
Could there be a "unicorn" amongst my 10? Unlikely, but some of mine do have the potentional, and product, but that's not always enough.
I have around 2% of my savings/pension/investments on Seedrs.
I'm planning to add a new holding later this month, a risky EIS investment, but a similar business in the USA recently had a "Round A" investment of $25m, the earlier stage UK Seedrs list I believe will have a c£4m valuation. Neither the private or public round is up yet.
I'm what Seedrs call a Leedr, one of their more active investors. I'm also a Seedrs shareholder.

[bernie]

Thanks for sharing all that interesting information!

From an HMRC Self-Assessment perspective, was it painful to invest in 80 projects? A friend said that the space on his tax form made it difficult to fill in, and I doubt he did 80.

I've backed SEIS & EIS projects on Seerds, maybe in total around 80.
At the moment I'm showing c50% capital profit over a 5 year period, with tax offset along the way.
My strategy was to put a fixed amount in a number of raises, then be very selective about pre-emptions.
Now, 5 years later, I've got a portfolio of 10 businesses that are doing OK and for them I'm happy to pick up additional shares in the 2ndry market.
I'm seeing x multiple returns on my original investments, diluted by the "adds".
I've made more from buying high yielding listed PE funds, but it has been more interesting and resulted in a few business partnerships.
I was working on a success of 1 in 16.
Could there be a "unicorn" amongst my 10? Unlikely, but some of mine do have the potentional, and product, but that's not always enough.
I have around 2% of my savings/pension/investments on Seedrs.
I'm planning to add a new holding later this month, a risky EIS investment, but a similar business in the USA recently had a "Round A" investment of $25m, the earlier stage UK Seedrs list I believe will have a c£4m valuation. Neither the private or public round is up yet.
I'm what Seedrs call a Leedr, one of their more active investors. I'm also a Seedrs shareholder.

[bernie]

Does anyone have any opinions on these 2 funds?

https://www.syndicateroom.com/invest

https://www.wealthclub.co.uk/seis-inves ... seis-fund/

[UncleEbenezer]

Thanks for sharing all that interesting information!

From an HMRC Self-Assessment perspective, was it painful to invest in 80 projects? A friend said that the space on his tax form made it difficult to fill in, and I doubt he did 80.

I've not done 80, but in my most active year I had about 10 (S)EIS entries on my tax form, all for very modest sums.

Not a problem. Just attach a separate sheet. A table of (from memory) company name and number, amount, date of investment, tax office reference.

[formoverfunction]

Thanks for sharing all that interesting information!

From an HMRC Self-Assessment perspective, was it painful to invest in 80 projects? A friend said that the space on his tax form made it difficult to fill in, and I doubt he did 80.

I've backed SEIS & EIS projects on Seerds, maybe in total around 80.
At the moment I'm showing c50% capital profit over a 5 year period, with tax offset along the way.
My strategy was to put a fixed amount in a number of raises, then be very selective about pre-emptions.
Now, 5 years later, I've got a portfolio of 10 businesses that are doing OK and for them I'm happy to pick up additional shares in the 2ndry market.
I'm seeing x multiple returns on my original investments, diluted by the "adds".
I've made more from buying high yielding listed PE funds, but it has been more interesting and resulted in a few business partnerships.
I was working on a success of 1 in 16.
Could there be a "unicorn" amongst my 10? Unlikely, but some of mine do have the potentional, and product, but that's not always enough.
I have around 2% of my savings/pension/investments on Seedrs.
I'm planning to add a new holding later this month, a risky EIS investment, but a similar business in the USA recently had a "Round A" investment of $25m, the earlier stage UK Seedrs list I believe will have a c£4m valuation. Neither the private or public round is up yet.
I'm what Seedrs call a Leedr, one of their more active investors. I'm also a Seedrs shareholder.

No, Seedrs provide enough info. HMRC allow a consolidated reporting approach. I've invested over a 5 year period, so it's not like I have to list them all in one go!