Industrial Buildings Allowances

Industrial buildings allowances (IBAs) allow taxpayers to write off for tax purposes expenditure on industrial buildings. They have been with us for over sixty years and are the second most commonly claimed type of capital allowance after plant and machinery allowances. Despite this the basic rules of IBAs are often misunderstood by taxpayers and practitioners alike particularly where a property is acquired second-hand.

General understanding is that the fundamental requirements for a claim are that capital expenditure is incurred on a building and the building is used for a qualifying purpose. However the devil is in the detail...