EIIS Stands For Employee and Investment Incentive Scheme.

The purpose of the scheme is to encourage private individuals in Ireland to invest in Irish private companies in order to help these companies grow and create new jobs.

The way in which the EIIS incentivizes Irish investors to invest in these companies is by offering the investor a tax refund of 40% of the amount of their investment, on the basis that the investor leaves the investment in the company for a minimum of 4 years. Therefore, if you, as an Investor, invest €10,000 in company ABC, you can reclaim €4,000 of this €10,000 from the Irish Revenue Commissioners when you make your tax returns for the year in which you make th investment.

The effect of this is that the most you can lose on this €10,000 investment are €6,000, and even if your investment provides you with a big payback, you still keep the €4,000 tax rebate.

This makes a major difference to the risk-reward trade-off of the **Investment**. It should be noted that the Irish Revenue Commissioners do not deem all companies eligible for EIIS status, so the tax rebate does not apply to companies in every sector.