Tax allowances for business investment

Making the most of your investment

Companies can qualify for a 100% first-year allowance, which effectively means full expensing for qualifying capital expenditure. There is also a 50% first-year allowance for special rate pool expenditure. 

For unincorporated businesses, the high annual investment allowance limit of £1,000,000 for plant and machinery means that in most cases there is also full expensing of capital expenditure.

Where such generous reliefs are not available, it is important that you benefit from any other available tax relief for capital expenditure.

The October 2024 Budget confirmed that both the 100% first-year allowance for companies and the annual investment allowance are to be retained for the foreseeable future.

Capital allowances are, however, no longer relevant for many sole traders and partnerships because the cash basis is now the default method for calculating trading profit.