We hope you are all staying safe and well in these most difficult of times. As with us, we are sure the focus for many of you will be on how you can retain cash in your businesses. Additionally, it is also important to consider reviewing past year’s expenditure for any missed opportunities to bring cash into the business using reliefs and incentives of the UK tax regime.
Reviewing your cash flow and forecasts for the short-term is a must during this turbulent time, and tax incentives can play a part in this. Any available reliefs will have the potential to reduce tax liabilities and in some situations can result in cash payments from HMRC. Capital Allowances and Land Remediation Relief are two of such reliefs that we can help you with.
One new relief you may not be aware of though is the new Structures and Buildings Allowance (SBA) scheme. The introduction of SBA is intended to address unrelieved capital expenditure and encourage commercial investment. Since the abolition of its predecessor, the Industrial Buildings Allowance, a frustration of our Clients was that a large proportion of their capital expenditure did not qualify for any tax relief via capital allowances. The SBA provides tax relief against three types of expenditure:
- The eligible costs of construction works of new non-residential structures and buildings
- The cost of acquiring a completed building
- The cost of renovating or converting such buildings.
So back in March, it was great to see a Budget that focused on supporting businesses through these turbulent times, with the Chancellor announcing a 1% increase in capital allowances under the scheme. We must say that this 1% was a welcome increase to the original 2% writing down rate.
Many of us working in capital allowances field were largely unconvinced of the overall benefit of claiming the relief versus the administration associated with its valuation and adoption.
For more information on how the relief works and how it can be claimed please download our Guide here – Key Notes_ SBA
