Intangible fixed assets: FA 2019 changes to goodwill and degrouping charges

Finance Act 2019 introduced two important changes to the intangible fixed assets (IFA) regime; namely the ability to defer IFA degrouping charges for ‘relevant disposals’ and a reinstatement of amortisation relief for goodwill and other customer-related intangibles in the context of IP-intensive business acquisitions. Many businesses will no doubt welcome the changes to the degrouping charge rules particularly if they wish to divest themselves of non-core IP assets in an M&A share sale. Meanwhile the reinstatement of relief for the cost of goodwill and subsequent amortisation is limited to situations where the goodwill is acquired on or after 1 April 2019 as part of a business acquisition with eligible IP assets and the goodwill is neither a ‘pre-FA 2019 relevant asset’ nor acquired as part of a business incorporation. The amount of relief will generally depend on the level of eligible IP in the business....