Short life assets

News: May 2011

Short life assets

When claiming capital allowances on plant and machinery purchased in excess of the annual investment allowance limit, if the asset(s) concerned only have a short life they can by election be looked at separately. That is a very useful tool, as it means that when the asset is sold for a small amount (or perhaps more realistically scrapped) you get the balance of expenditure written-off for tax straight away.

The expected life to be a short-life asset increased from 4 years to 8 years from April 2011. Perhaps the best practical example of an asset this will benefit is a commercial vehicle, which ordinarily could be expected to last more than 4 years but not more than 8.