Finance Act 2010

From a fairly unexciting Budget (at first glance) two bits of good news:

Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) went up to £100,000 a year from 5 April 2010 for individuals, 1 April 2010 for companies – but we have lost the 40% First Year Allowance (FYA) on additions in excess of the AIA.  The practical effect of this is that businesses with year ends during the 2010/11 tax year will get proportional relief e.g. a business with a year end of 31 December 2010 will get £87,500 AIA.

More help for businessmen in the shape of increased Entrepreneurs’ Relief (EPR) - for disposals from 6 April 2010 onwards this applies to gains of up to £2m.

On the flip side we are promised more aggressive and more determined anti-avoidance procedures and my concern about that is that these can often be a sledgehammer to crack a nut and can impact upon taxpayers who are only lawfully trying to minimise their tax bill.

April 2010