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An advance assurance service is offered by HMRC which is discretionary and non-statutory¹. There is no requirement for a company to obtain advance assurance before issuing shares to investors, but doing so can give comfort to the investor that the scheme is likely to be meet the conditions in respect of the company and the particular share issue. Such an assurance can therefore be very helpful to seed enterprises finding it difficult to secure finance, although it should be noted that an assurance will only be given in respect of a particular share issue and it should not be regarded as providing assurance in respect of a different share issue.

An application for advance assurance can be made online and be submitted by the company's secretary, its directors, a trustee (if the social enterprise is a charitable trust) or from a person authorised by them to do so on their behalf².