Relief for investment in innovative enterprise

Requirements for certification (relief group)

A company’s relief group is made up of the company and its partner businesses or linked businesses.  Further details on a 'relief group' are available in the Tax and Duty Manual, The Relief for Investment in Innovative Enterprises.

The following conditions must be met by the relief group a company belongs to before it can apply for certification:

• Each company in the relief group must be unlisted.
• No entity in the relief group may be subject to an outstanding recovery order relating to State aid.
• The share capital of each company in the relief group must be fully paid up.
• The relief group members must be established for less than seven years when applying for the Certificates of Qualification.
• The relief group must be a Small, Medium or Micro Enterprise (SME).
• The relief group cannot be an undertaking in difficulty.

Undertaking in difficulty

This condition applies if the company and its relief group is established for more than three years.

The company must show that it is not part of an undertaking in difficulty.

An undertaking in difficulty is a business that, without intervention, will probably fail in the short, or medium, term. 

There are specific tests which are applied to the company’s accounts to identify whether or not it is an undertaking in difficulty.  Further details can be found in the Tax and Duty Manual, The Relief for Investment in Innovative Enterprise.

Next: Certificates of Qualification