The Autumn Statement included a boost for more environmentally friendly transport, with the announcement of £390m of funding for R&D work on low emission vehicles and the development of connected autonomous vehicles, plus a 100% first year capital allowance for the installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure
HMRC said the new measure is designed to support the development and installation of electric recharging equipment for electric vehicles as part of the process of promoting the wider uptake of such vehicles by making electric charge-points a more common feature on the high street.
Latest available information suggests that there were only 4,262 separate locations for electric charge-points in existence in November 2016.
There is now a 100% first-year allowance (FYA) for expenditure incurred on electric charge-point equipment, with immediate effect from 23 November 2016. The allowance will expire on 31 March 2019 for corporation tax purposes and 5 April 2019 for income tax purposes.
HMRC said legislation will be introduced in Finance Bill 2017 to provide this new FYA for just over two years and four months. The legislation will be backdated to 23 November 2016.
The cost to the Treasury is negligible. HMRC says it expects take up to be amongst larger companies, as the new measure impacts only on those businesses with qualifying plant and machinery expenditure above the level of the annual investment allowance of £200,000. HMRC’s policy paper Capital allowances: first-year allowance for electric charge-points is here
