Changes announced in the 2009 Budget now entitle overseas holiday letting businesses to the same benefits already enjoyed by owners of UK based holiday homes. Based on our case studies, between 10% and 30% of the purchase price of a holiday home may be classified as integrated plant and machinery. This is in addition to the loose furniture and equipment that may already have been claimed.

Following the introduction of Energy Performance Certificates in 2008, we are now seeing signs of a two-tier market emerging where some energy assessor businesses have been offering very low fees to undertake a complex technical task, whilst established professional surveying or engineering consultancies set out fees running into thousands of pounds for the same task, we look at the reasons and the choices available.

The Enhanced Capital Allowances scheme for promoting expenditure on energy efficient technology in buildings, although simple in its objective, has become a minefield for specifiers and building owners, who might want to take advantage of the tax breaks available. Since the budget, there have been some fundamental changes to a number of key technologies. It was initially thought that these would be ‘minor housekeeping’, but it has transpired they are more wide ranging.

As we mentioned in our earlier Budget announcement, the first year allowance will be available for most types of businesses, including property investment and there is no cap on the level of first year allowance. The first year allowance, however, is not available for certain types of expenditure. These exclusions mean that some businesses will benefit more than others.

With the phasing out of industrial building allowances brought in by the Finance Act 2008, owners of industrial buildings are increasingly interested in the possibility of reclassifying the plant and machinery previously included within an industrial buildings allowance claim.

In the case of repairs that are carried out to a property soon after it has been acquired, there is sometimes a temptation to treat some repair expenditure as capital, rather than revenue. The reason for this approach is because the recently acquired property has not been used in the business for any length of time.

In each country the relative benefits of the particular tax depreciation regime will only become clear through detailed analysis. Last issue we featured Poland, this month we consider incentives in India.

When an investor purchases the freehold of a block of flats, Capital Allowances are probably the last thing that is built into his or her appraisal. It is not likely that the investor will realise that in addition to purchasing an income stream, he or she has also purchased plant and machinery could reduce the tax liability of that investor.

It was recently announced by HM Revenue & Customs that it will be introducing a series of toolkits for tax agents in order to provide guidance on how HM Revenue & Customs views compliance risk and also to set out how tax agents can reduce the likelihood of mistakes occurring in tax returns.

If a taxpayer is unable to agree with a decision of HM Revenue & Customs, then there is a right of appeal under the Taxes Management Act. Both the taxpayer and HM Revenue & Customs will usually prefer to try and reach agreement without proceeding to a formal hearing. In a move that may help facilitate a reduction in the number of appeals to the tax tribunals, HM Revenue Customs have introduced a new statutory review procedure which can be followed prior to making an appeal to the tribunal.

Draft legislation has been published with effect from 1 April 2009 and HM Revenue & Customs more recently released their accompanying draft guidance notes. The additional tax relief can make a significant difference at a project level for example, a £1m remediation bill, will mean up to 42% can be recovered through the tax relief scheme, which could drastically alter the final decision on a project's viability.