Capital Allowances - Are you in the wrong business?

Capital Allowances - Are you in the wrong...

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I'm not sure whether anyone catches Estates Gazette Interactive? There was an artcle posted this week with regards to capital allowances claims - in which Shaun Murphy, of Portal Tax Claims estimates that his company will be able to claim back £5bn in tax for commercial property owners in the next five years.

Apparently at present, a PTC claim averages £105k of capital allowances per business.

If my mathematics serves me correct, this would mean that there is potentially £17.8bn of unclaimed capital allowances available (at 28%) for property owners....

The article suggests that Portal Tax charges 6% of allowances claimed, bringing in potentially £1bn of fees in the coming five years (though with the average claim, this would mean churning out about 170,000 claims in that period.)

So my question is two-fold - does anyone feel this is credible? And if so, are you now retraining....?

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By dunhamsjd
05th Feb 2011 15:39

Approach with caution!

This is not much more than marketing hype by what are in effect "sales people".  There are lies, damned lies and statistics! It would be very interesting to see what the basis for their "96%" is?

Have a read of the article and in the first place they talk about £5bn of tax being claimed back then in the next sentance it says capital allowances of £1bn per year will be reclaimed - there's quite a difference between £5bn of tax and £5bn of capital allowances!

While undoubtably businesses do under estimate the capital allowances that they are potentially due, especially on property related expenditure, these and others like them seem to be more interested in their own fee levels that actually providing real added value services to clients.  Their promotional literature leaves a lot to be desired and consistently shows a lack of understanding of the tax legislation.

I understand that from a prominent recruitment consultant that they are now seeking a "capital allowances professional" to head up their operation - says it all I think!

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By plummy1
01st Mar 2011 18:40

Hype or Tripe?

I have a vested interest in the capital allowances market and I have to say that this type of story gets the market as a whole a bad name. These things are said purely to generate business. Having said this it is also a poor piece of journalism as your calculations have pointed out.

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