Equipment tax relief: what you can claim this year and what's left
Enter what was left to claim from last year, what you bought and what you sold. We'll show this year's tax relief and what carries forward.
Your answer
Enter the last day of your business year, then what's left to claim and what you bought or sold.
About this calculator
For companies, sole traders and partnerships that claim capital allowances on equipment, vans, cars and building fittings. It works out this year's claim, what's left in each pool to carry forward, and next year's claim if nothing changes.
It covers the Annual Investment Allowance, full expensing and the 50% allowance for companies, the 40% first-year allowance, 100% for new electric cars, the yearly share on each pool, the small pools write-off, sales and the balancing charge, short years, and the last year of a business. Leased or hired-out items, short-life asset elections, buildings bought with fittings and the structures and buildings allowance aren't covered: talk to us about those.
What happens to your answers
We don’t keep them. Your answers go to our server to do the sums and aren’t stored or logged. If you copy a link to your answers, they’re in the link itself, so only share it with people you trust.
How it’s worked out
Spending is sorted into the main pool (most equipment, vans, cars 50g/km or less) or the special rate pool (building fittings, long-life items, cars over 50g/km). The £1 million Annual Investment Allowance goes where it saves most this year; cars can't use it. A company's new equipment gets full expensing, and its new building fittings 50% straight away. Anyone else's new equipment bought from 1 January 2026 gets 40%. What's left after a 40% or 50% allowance joins the pool next year.
For each pool we take what was left last year, add what joins and take off what you sold (never more than it cost). Below nil, the difference is added to your profit. £1,000 or less is claimed in full. Otherwise you claim the yearly share: 14% of the main pool (18% before April 2026, a blend by days for a year across the change) and 6% of the special rate pool. A short year scales the allowances down. In the year a business stops, there's no yearly share or Annual Investment Allowance: what's left is claimed in one go.
Worked example
You can claim £77,920 of capital allowances for the year to 31 March 2027.
Company · 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 · business carrying on · allowances claimed in full
| Your business year: 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 | |
|---|---|
| Spent on equipment and cars this year | £70,000 |
| Annual Investment Allowance (up to £1,000,000) | + £40,000 |
| Full expensing: 100% of new equipment (companies) | + £30,000 |
| Main pool: £50,000 left from last year − £2,000 sales | £48,000 |
| Main pool: writing-down allowance, £48,000 × 14% | + £6,720 |
| Special rate pool: £20,000 left from last year | £20,000 |
| Special rate pool: writing-down allowance, £20,000 × 6% | + £1,200 |
| Capital allowances you can claim this year | £77,920 |
| Left in the main pool for next year | £41,280 |
| Left in the special rate pool for next year | £18,800 |
| Next year (to 31 March 2028), if you buy and sell nothing more: main pool at 14%, special rate pool at 6% | £6,907.20 |
Worked out with the capital allowance rates for your business year (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027), each pool on its own, under the Capital Allowances Act 2001.
Questions people ask
What does "left to claim" mean?
It's the part of what you paid that hasn't had tax relief yet. Each year you claim a share and the rest carries forward. Your accountant's tax computation shows it as the closing balance of each pool.
Why is there a charge when I sell something?
The allowances cover what equipment loses in value. If you sell for more than is left in the pool, you've had too much relief, so the difference is added to your profit (a balancing charge).
Do I have to claim it all?
No. You can claim less, for example if the allowance is bigger than your profit. What you don't claim stays in the pool for later years.
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