Which allowance you get, and why it matters
Buy equipment and you cannot simply deduct it like a normal expense — you claim capital allowances, and which one applies changes the timing enormously. Sometimes all of it lands this year; sometimes a fraction a year for a decade.
Full expensing gives 100% on new main-rate plant and 50% on new special-rate assets. It is uncapped and permanent, and it is for companies buying new and unused assets only. The Annual Investment Allowance gives 100% on up to £1,000,000 a year, covers both pools, and is open to unincorporated businesses and to second-hand kit. For most practices the AIA does everything full expensing would have.
In this sector the spend that matters is typically branch fit-out, window displays and signage, IT and CRM hardware, photography and video kit, and vehicles.
The window is the shopfront, and the shopfront is two things
Display units, screens, lighting rails and the furniture are main-pool plant. The electrical installation behind them, the air conditioning and any part of the ceiling forming those systems are integral features in the 6% pool. A branch refit invoice that says “shopfit” and nothing else is a problem waiting to happen — ask for it split.
Vehicles: the bit that catches agencies
Branded cars are the norm in this sector and cars are excluded from both the Annual Investment Allowance and full expensing. They go into the pools by CO2: new and unused zero-emission cars get a 100% first-year allowance, second-hand electric and anything up to 50g/km go to the main pool at 14%, and above 50g/km it is 6%.
A liveried van is not a car and does qualify, which is occasionally the deciding factor on what the branch actually buys.