Capital allowances for estates
Shooting lodges, staff accommodation, serviced offices, hotels and equestrian facilities each hold their own allowances. We survey the whole estate and claim them together.
A large country estate is rarely one business. The same ownership might run a hotel or wedding venue, a sporting operation with a shooting lodge, let farmland, serviced offices in converted buildings, equestrian facilities and housing for staff. Each has its own fixtures, its own tax treatment and often its own entity.
We have completed claims on many estates across the UK, covering shooting lodges, staff accommodation, serviced offices, hotels and equestrian facilities. The value usually sits in the buildings that were bought, converted or refurbished, and it is rarely claimed because no one has looked at the estate as a whole.
We start by mapping which business uses which building, then survey and value the qualifying fixtures in each. The claims are sequenced across entities and year ends so the £1m Annual Investment Allowance is used where it gives the most relief. There is no fee if we can’t identify previously unclaimed allowances.
What qualifies
Legislation that matters
Plant in a dwelling-house let as part of a property business is excluded. Staff accommodation, lodges and cottages need care: a building used in a trade, or communal accommodation that is not a dwelling, can still qualify. We review each building’s use before it goes into the claim.
Companies under common control in related businesses share one £1m Annual Investment Allowance. On an estate with several entities, deciding where the AIA goes is worth as much as finding the expenditure.
Converting barns into offices or building new lodges earns the Structures and Buildings Allowance at 3% a year on the construction cost of the shell, alongside plant allowances on the fixtures inside.
When a hotel, farm or lodge is sold off, a s198 election fixes the value of the fixtures between seller and buyer. Agreed before exchange, it protects allowances on both sides.
The UK’s leading capital allowance specialists
Embedded allowances need a property survey, a valuation and specialist tax knowledge. Most accountancy firms claim invoiced items such as furniture and computers, but don’t have the surveying resource to identify fixtures built into the fabric of a building.
Allowances are not deducted from the cost of the asset when calculating a gain (s41 TCGA 1992), so a claim cannot create or increase a chargeable gain. They can restrict a capital loss, and on a sale the s198 election decides what passes to the buyer, so plan it into the transaction.
Every claim is documented to stand up to scrutiny, and we support you throughout any HMRC enquiry. To date every report we have submitted has been approved.
No. If we can’t identify previously unclaimed allowances, there is no fee. Full fee terms are set out in our engagement letter.
Two minutes, no obligation, and no fee if we can’t identify previously unclaimed allowances.
