- If selling a commercial property, identifying capital allowances will be an extra incentive for potential buyers
where they are unclaimed by the seller. - Make sure the lawyers involved in the transaction return S198 elections as your accountant needs to lodge the signed S198 electin with HMRC to fulfil the election requirements. Lawyers don’t generally submit forms to HMRC so the election could potentially be at risk.
- Review all property purchases no matter how old. It is never too late to make a claim for capital allowances. Although purchases post April 2014 may fail the pooling requirements!
- Review all construction expenditure, capital allowance claims can also be for construction expenditure at any time up to sale of a property.
- Keep records of all expenditure incurred. This is for both purchase contracts and building invoices – there is nothing better than documentary evidence.
- Landlords can claim on tenant’s fit out Commercial property landlords who provide tenants with a capital contribution towards fitting out premises are able to claim the capital allowances on the contribution.
- New development? Make sure qualifying energy efficient plant is specified. Energy bills will be lower if correctly specified the owner will obtain 100% relief on the plant and in the form of enhanced allowances. Things to consider include: pipework insulation, high speed hand air dryers, boiler equipment and HVAC equipment and the like.
- Renovating? Check to see if you could claim If a commercial property has been empty for 12 months and located in a disadvantaged area, 100% tax relief could be claimed on any renovation with business premises renovation allowance.
- Locate new properties in enterprise zones Enterprise zones have been set up around the country to provide 100% first year’s allowances for qualifying plant for trading companies only.
- Have you considered R&D capital allowances on property expenditure as well as R&D tax relief? Research and Development (R&D) in respect of property expenditure by traders will qualify for a 100% allowance on all the bricks and mortar expenditure. A building doesn’t have to be focused in R&D to qualify – it could be only a single room and still qualify for 100% on that room.
Extra tip!
- Consult a capital allowance specialist to make sure you get the best advice. Our team uses specialist surveyors with over 25 years’ capital allowance experience with a proven track record.
If you’d like to learn more about capital allowances take a look here at our FAQs on the subject.
