How we've helped our clients

Clients we've supported...

Healthcare

Car wash

Office purchase

Retail

Derelict land

Case study:

Warehouse

The situation

The project consisted of the new construction of a supermarket retailer’s distribution centre.

The landlord had constructed the “shell” for the retailer at a cost of £22,000,000. The supermarket tenant had provided the services and fitting out of the building.
The landlord, a leading property developer/investor had dismissed the availability of capital allowances because of the level of fit-out works carried out by the tenant.

What we did

We prepared a full analysis of the landlord’s “shell” construction works.

The result

Our work produced additional allowances of £3,300,000.
Our client obtained a tax saving of circa £759,000 (at 23%).

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Case study:

Healthcare

The situation

This project consisted of a newly constructed General Practitioner’s doctor’s surgery, costing £1,940,000.

The construction works were procured on a design and build basis, with limited cost breakdowns provided.
Approaching completion, the main contractor went into receivership and no additional cost details were provided.

What we did

With no meaningful cost details available, we prepared detailed assessments of the cost of the works and (following HMRC enquiry) agreed the amounts claimed with the Regional Building Surveyor from the Valuation Office Agency.

The result

Our work produced additional allowances of £521,000.
Our client obtained a tax saving of circa £119,830 (at 23%).

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Case study:

Motor dealer

The situation

This project consisted of the purchase of a Jaguar dealership from a national dealer group for £2,000,000.

The seller, in replies to pre-contract enquiries had confirmed that no capital allowances were available to the buyer.

The seller had not claimed capital allowances but had acquired the plant & machinery fixtures at the property from a group company in the sum of £1.00 by election under Capital Allowances Act 2001 s198.

What we did

We identified items of plant & machinery at the property which were not claimed by the Seller (or any company in the Seller’s group).

The result

Our work produced additional allowances of £160,000.
Our client obtained a tax saving of circa £36,800 (at 23%).

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Case study:

Education:

Private nursery

The situation

Our client had constructed a portfolio of 20+ nurseries. The nursery business was a new venture for an existing private school. Consequently, in the early years, the nursery business was loss-making and had not claimed capital allowances within the construction expenditure it had incurred. Construction expenditure of approximately £14,500,000 had been incurred.

What we did

Our work consisted of obtaining project cost information from a mixture of sources – project Quantity Surveyors, Architects and Contractors and preparing a detailed analysis of each project to support a retrospective late claim for capital allowances.

The result

Our work produced additional allowances of £5,350,000.
Our client obtained a tax saving of circa £1,223,950 (at 23%).

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Case study:

Hospitality -

hotel

The situation

Our client had inherited a run-down hotel from his father and spent £6,200,000 remodelling the public areas and refurbishing all of the bedrooms.

The property was refurbished by the client who procured the construction works by buying all of the materials, hiring plant and employing labour to carry out the works.

What we did

Our work required a detailed allocation of all labour, materials and plant hire costs to the items that qualified as plant & machinery.

The result

Our work produced additional allowances of £1,800,000.
Our client obtained a tax saving of circa £720,000 (at 40%).

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Case study:

Hospitality -

Pub

The situation

The project consisted of the new refurbishment extension of a pub. The work had been mostly carried out by several contractors with the landlord acquiring all construction materials themselves. This meant no schedule of works was available.

The landlord had assumed that as no detailed costs were available regarding what was done with the materials, no claim could be made.

What we did

Using floor plans and photographs of the property, the cost of materials and labour could be used to identify qualifying works in the property.

The result

Our work produced additional allowances of £32,300 (£157,700).
Our client obtained a tax saving of circa £32,300 (£157,700).

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Case study:

Car wash

The situation

An Accountant that refers work to us asked if we would be able to tell him if there was any capital allowances within approximately £60,000 of groundworks carried out on a site where an automated car wash and jet wash facility was installed.

What we did

As it was not economic to visit the property we obtained copy invoices, photographs of the site and construction drawings electronically.

The result

Our work produced additional allowances of £18,000.
Our client obtained a tax saving of £7,200.
Our fee was calculated on a time basis and for the few hours we spent preparing the analysis, our fees were less than 10% of the tax saving.

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Case study:

Office purchase

The situation

Our client purchased a multi-storey air-conditioned office block for £28,000,000. The property was bought from a pension fund that had signed a Capital Allowances Act 2001 s198 election for £1,000,000 with its predecessor. Our client’s purchase agreement contained an undertaking that it would not claim any capital allowances in excess of £1,000,000.

What we did

We identified items of plant & machinery at the property which the former owner had not claimed. We also identified that the original Capital Allowances Act 2001 s198 election had been invalid and disapplied by HMRC. Instead of the elected value of £1,000,000 the disposal value was in fact £3,160,000. We also drafted, negotiated and agreed to a side agreement with the pension fund to ensure that our client was not in breach of the undertaking in the purchase agreement.

The result

Our work produced additional allowances of £2,160,000.
Our client obtained a tax saving of circa £496,800.

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Case study:

Retail

The situation

Our client disposed of a flagship store. In its enthusiasm to complete the deal having achieved an unexpectedly high price, it inadvertently failed to protect against the claw-back of capital allowances by a Capital Allowances Act 2001 s 198 election.

The Buyer, if well advised, could have forced the claw-back of approximately £6,000,000 of allowances.

What we did

Having acted for our client for a considerable time, we were aware of the pre-disposal re-structuring that had taken place within its property portfolio.

We put in place an election within an intra-group transfer to prevent the Buyer from forcing a claw-back of allowances.

The result

Our work protected against a loss of allowances of £6,000,000.
Our client protected against the loss of tax savings of circa £1,200,000.

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Case study:

Derelict land -

derelict building

The situation

Our client had carried out extensive refurbishment works to a building it had acquired in a derelict state. Refurbishment works costing £220,000 had been carried out and the client’s accountant had claimed 20% as repairs and 20% as plant & machinery. HMRC had raised an enquiry and rejected both of these amounts.

What we did

We re-analysed the whole of the £220,000 of expenditure and identified £98,000 of plant & machinery additions, which was agreed by HMRC without further enquiry. We agreed that no revenue deduction was permitted.

Prior to the enquiry, our client had claimed £88,000 (£44,000 as revenue plus £44,000 as plant & machinery) which had been rejected by HMRC. Annual Investment Allowance was available on the £98,000, resulting in a reduction to tax payable as a consequence of us defending the enquiry.

The result

Our work produced additional allowances of £98,000.
Our client obtained a tax saving of circa £39,200 (at 40%).

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Case study:

Derelict land -

land remediation

The situation

Our client had undertaken a project in which it was necessary to implement gas membranes within a property to mitigate the harmful effects of ground gasses.

What we did

We identified the expenditure on activities that were involved or were associated with the implementation of the gas membranes. These were costs on the project that would not have been incurred by the company if the need for the implementation of the gas membranes was not necessary.

We then produced a report which was submitted to HMRC explaining our methodologies and supporting the figures.

The result

Our work produced an additional deduction of £800,000.
Our client obtained a tax credit of circa £150,000.

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