Two capital allowances changes landed within a few months of each other and they point in opposite directions. A new 40% first-year allowance on main-rate plant and machinery is available from 1 January 2026 — and unlike full expensing, sole traders and partnerships can claim it. Meanwhile the main-rate writing-down allowance falls from 18% to 14%, which slows relief on everything already sitting in your main pool.
Article · 16 March 2026
| Change | Detail | From |
|---|---|---|
| New 40% first-year allowance on main-rate plant and machinery | Available to all businesses, not just companies. Targets main-rate expenditure where existing first-year allowances are unavailable or not claimed. Second-hand assets excluded. Cars excluded. Overseas leasing excluded. | Expenditure incurred on or after 1 January 2026 |
| Main-rate writing-down allowance cut from 18% to 14% | Reducing balance. Hybrid rates apply for chargeable periods straddling commencement. | 1 April 2026 for corporation tax, 6 April 2026 for income tax |
Both were announced at Budget 2025 as measure 1.11, with legislation in Finance Bill 2025-26. The annual investment allowance and full expensing are unchanged by this measure.
The annual investment allowance is still £1,000,000 and still gives 100% relief in the year of purchase on most plant and machinery, for sole traders, partnerships and companies alike. It is confirmed at £1m for both 2025-26 and 2026-27.
If your annual capital spending is under £1m — which covers essentially every trade business — the AIA absorbs the whole lot at 100% and a 40% first-year allowance is worse, not better. You would never choose 40% over 100%.
So the 40% FYA matters in two situations: annual capital spend above £1m, and expenditure where the AIA is not available or has been used up. For a plant-heavy groundworks or demolition business buying several machines in a year, that is real. For a one-van electrician, it is not.
This is the change to actually pay attention to. Anything in the main pool — assets whose cost was not fully relieved in the year of purchase — now unwinds at 14% a year on a reducing balance rather than 18%.
A trade business carries £40,000 of unrelieved expenditure in its main pool at the start of the year.
£1,600 less relief in year one, worth about £416 of tax at the basic rate plus Class 4 NIC, or £400 at the 19% small profits rate of corporation tax.
The relief is not lost — it is deferred, and the pool takes considerably longer to unwind. Over five years the cumulative difference in allowances claimed is in the region of £4,500 on a £40,000 pool. It is a timing cost, and timing costs compound.
Note the hybrid rates for a chargeable period straddling 1 April 2026 (corporation tax) or 6 April 2026 (income tax): a year end that is not 31 March or 5 April gets an apportioned rate rather than one or the other.
None of the above helps a double-cab pick-up, because HMRC now treats most of them as cars for capital allowances — no AIA, no full expensing, and no 40% FYA, since cars are excluded from all three. Commencement was 1 April 2025 for corporation tax and 6 April 2025 for income tax, and the transitional protection for contracts entered into before then ran out on 1 October 2025.
The benefit-in-kind transitional rule is a different and much longer one, running to as late as 5 April 2029 for vehicles purchased, leased or ordered before 6 April 2025 — so the same vehicle can be a van on the P11D and a car in the tax computation. The vans, tools and plant guide sets both timelines out side by side, and the service page covers how we deal with it.
Both changes were announced at Budget 2025 with Finance Bill 2025-26 as the vehicle, and we have not independently confirmed Royal Assent. gov.uk publishes both as applying from the dates above and HMRC is operating them.
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A first-year allowance of 40% on main-rate plant and machinery for expenditure incurred on or after 1 January 2026, announced at Budget 2025. Unlike full expensing it is available to all businesses rather than companies only, so sole traders and partnerships can claim it. Second-hand assets, cars and overseas leasing are excluded. In practice it matters only where annual capital spending exceeds the £1,000,000 annual investment allowance, or where the AIA is unavailable or used up — because 100% relief under the AIA is always better than 40%, and the AIA covers essentially every trade business.
It slows relief on everything already in your main pool. From 1 April 2026 for corporation tax and 6 April 2026 for income tax, the main-rate writing-down allowance falls from 18% to 14% on a reducing balance. On a £40,000 main pool that is an allowance of £5,600 instead of £7,200 in year one — £1,600 less relief, worth roughly £400 to £420 of tax depending on your rate. The relief is deferred rather than lost, but the pool takes considerably longer to unwind, and the cumulative difference over five years on that pool is around £4,500. Hybrid rates apply where your accounting period straddles the commencement date.
The annual investment allowance, in almost every case. It gives 100% relief in the year of purchase on most plant and machinery, is £1,000,000 for both 2025-26 and 2026-27, and is available to sole traders, partnerships and companies alike. You would only reach for the 40% first-year allowance where the AIA is unavailable or already used up, which for a trade business means annual capital spending above £1m. There is also a practical restriction that favours the AIA: second-hand assets are excluded from the 40% allowance, and a great deal of trade plant is bought second-hand.
Generally no, not the good ones. HMRC no longer reads the capital allowances definition of 'car' as excluding double-cab pick-ups with a payload of a tonne or more, so most pick-ups equally suited to conveying passengers or goods are treated as cars — and cars are excluded from the annual investment allowance, from full expensing and from the new 40% first-year allowance. Commencement was 1 April 2025 for corporation tax and 6 April 2025 for income tax, and the transitional protection for pre-commencement contracts ended on 1 October 2025. The separate benefit-in-kind transitional rule can run to 5 April 2029, so the same vehicle may be a van on the P11D and a car in the computation.
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