Hoopla Animation, formerly trading as Daisy Boo and Monkey Too, first appealed against HMRC at the First Tier Tribunal (FTT) in 2023, losing the original case which revolved around whether shares issued in 2018 valued at £1,130,907.40 were eligible for EIS.

Hoopla argued that the FTT ‘misinterpreted and misapplied s178A Income Tax Act 2007, known as the no disqualifying arrangements, which defined the relevant person as a party to the arrangements or a person connected with such a party’, and that ‘concept of paying an amount “to or for the benefit of” the relevant person not extending to amounts that were received pursuant to arm’s length commercial subcontracting arrangements’.

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