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United Kingdom
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Key definition
Plant and machinery definition

What does Plant and machinery mean? In legal practice, plant and machinery describes the equipment, apparatus and machines a business uses to carry on its trade, as distinct from the land or buildings in which it operates. The expression is used across multiple contexts and, for specific purposes, is informed by legislation and case law. For tax, what counts as plant and machinery determines entitlement to capital allowances (UK: Capital Allowances Act 2001; Ireland: Taxes Consolidation Act 1997), including treatment of fixtures and integral features. For non-domestic rating/valuation, regulatory lists identify which plant and machinery is rateable (with separate regulations in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern...

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UK corporation tax: plant and machinery capital allowances—qualifying expenditure, pooling, writing-down and first-year allowances, disposals and balancing charges, claims, time limits and loss relief

Published by a LexisNexis Tax expert
Practice notes
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FORTHCOMING CHANGES:

At Budget 2025, the government confirmed that Finance Bill 2026 will legislate for:

  • a cut in the writing-down allowance rate for main pool plant and machinery from 18% to 14%, applying from 1 April 2026 for corporation tax and 6 April 2026 for income tax—this will affect companies and unincorporated businesses with main rate pools, including expenditure that is ineligible for, or predates, first-year allowances (such as the super-deduction and full expensing)
  • a new 40% first-year allowance for qualifying main rate expenditure incurred from 1 January 2026, with fewer restrictions than other FYAs—primarily advantageous where spend is not otherwise covered by the £1m AIA or existing FYAs (including full expensing); available to all businesses and covering assets used for leasing (but not overseas leasing), while excluding cars and second-hand assets
  • a one-year extension of the 100% green first-year allowances for qualifying spend on zero-emission cars and electric vehicle charging points, to 31 March 2027 for corporation tax and 5 April 2027 for income tax

...

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Steven Bone
Steven Bone

Steven is a tax-qualified chartered surveyor. He has specialised in capital allowances for more than 25 years, and more recently land remediation relief and R&D tax incentives. In his role as director at Gateley Capitus, Steven works with businesses that are buying, building or refurbishing commercial property, cleaning-up contaminated land and buildings or undertaking R&D activity to help them pay the right amount of tax by optimising the tax reliefs available to them.Prior to joining Gateley Capitus, Steven held senior roles in the Big 4, specialist boutique and national mid-tier accountancy firms. He is a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Association of Taxation Technicians.Alongside daily practice, Steven is a tax incentives writer and speaker for property investment and innovation activity.  ...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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