A commercial building is not one asset for tax. It is a structure, which gets no plant and machinery allowance, wrapped around a set of systems that do. Identifying the second inside the first is the whole of a commercial property capital allowances claim, and it is why buying a building is one of the few transactions where a specialist routinely earns several times their fee.
What qualifies inside a building
The integral features list covers the electrical and lighting installation, cold water, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, lifts and external solar shading. Beyond that, ordinary plant fixed to the building qualifies too: sanitaryware, fitted kitchens, fire alarms, security systems, signage. The qualifying proportion of a purchase price varies enormously by building type, and it is established by valuation rather than assumed from a percentage somebody quotes on a website.
Buying second hand, where the traps are
Fixtures in a building can only be claimed once in their life. Where a previous owner was entitled to claim, a buyer's entitlement depends on the seller having pooled the expenditure and on the two parties fixing a value, ordinarily by a joint election within two years of the transaction. Miss that and the buyer's claim can be lost permanently, which makes capital allowances a due diligence item rather than something to look at after completion. This is the single most expensive thing companies get wrong in this area.
What it costs to establish
None of the capital allowances firms in this site's record publishes a fee. What is on the record is that all three of them maintain their own live page for the work and none of them prints a price, which puts this corner of the market alongside the R&D specialists that do. Fees in this area are commonly a share of the tax saving identified rather than of the spend, and sometimes capped at the first year's saving, but that is asked rather than read.
Questions people ask about capital allowances on commercial property
What proportion of a commercial property qualifies for capital allowances?
It varies by building type and has to be established by valuation of the qualifying elements rather than taken from a rule of thumb. The qualifying parts are the integral features plus any other fixed plant.
Can I claim on a building I bought years ago?
Often yes, if the expenditure was never pooled by anyone. The two-year amendment window limits which period the claim lands in, not whether the expenditure can be brought into a pool at all.
What is the fixed value requirement?
Where a past owner was entitled to claim on fixtures, a buyer's entitlement generally depends on the value being fixed between the parties, ordinarily by a joint election made within two years of the transaction.