Home › Small Business › Business Finances › Business › Business and the environment › Going green? Check the allowances available

Going green? Check the allowances available

Through the Enhanced Capital Allowances regime, the government has been keen to encourage businesses to take advantage of green technology for some time.

However, some changes to capital allowances regimes allows businesses to claim 100 per cent allowances on a wide range of energy efficient and other environmentally beneficial plant and machinery.

Smaller businesses will obtain 100 per cent relief in any event through the Annual Investment Allowance, which provides a full deduction for expenditure on plant and machinery up to £100,000 in each year. The allowance does not, however, apply to expenditure on cars.

For slightly larger businesses thinking about going green, here are a few suggestions of things which attract enhanced capital allowances.

Water efficient products

Businesses seeking to reduce their water usage might consider investing in the following types of technology:

  • cleaning in place equipment
  • efficient showers
  • efficient taps
  • efficient toilets
  • efficient washing machines
  • flow controllers
  • leakage detection equipment
  • meters and monitoring equipment
  • rainwater harvesting equipment
  • small scale slurry and sludge dewatering equipment
  • vehicle wash water reclaim units
  • water efficient industrial cleaning equipment
  • water management equipment for mechanical seals
  • water reuse

To investigate further, those interested can follow up particular products by performing a product search on the eca website. For example, under rainwater harvesting equipment, buyers can search for the products which meet the criteria of the three types of equipment needed for a system - rainwater storage vessels, rainwater filtration equipment and monitoring and control equipment.

The website then lists the manufacturers and product information together with technical details of each individual product. Contact details for manufacturers are also provided.

The product search in relation to water technologies is at http://www.eca-water.gov.uk

Energy efficient products

The list of products is much wider and is grouped into a number of technologies, which is updated every year. The changes to the list of approved technologies for 2008 were:

The introduction of four new technology categories:

  • Compressed air equipment
  • Flow controllers
  • Master controllers
  • Heat pumps for space heating
  • Heat pump dehumidifiers
  • Lighting
  • White light emitting diodes for accent and amenity display lighting

Housekeeping changes to the current eligibility criteria in 11 areas as follows:

  • Boiler equipment
  • Biomass boilers and roomheaters
  • Gas-fired condensing water heaters
  • Localised rapid steam generators
  • Steam boilers
  • Compressed air equipment
  • Refrigerated air dryers
  • Lighting
  • Controls
  • High efficiency lighting units
  • Motors and drives
  • Variable speed drives
  • Integrated motor drives
  • Refrigeration equipment
  • Packaged chillers
  • Compressors

Those interested in installing energy efficient plant can again search the relevant technology type by going through http://www.eca.gov.uk and choosing Energy.

Easy Accountancy

Easy Accountancy is the UK’s only national specialist accountancy firm for freelancers, sole traders and small businesses

If you’ve just started out as a freelancer or run a small business, you’ll definitely need a small accountant and there are plenty of options out there! However, most accountants will charge you every time you get in touch with them; for every phone call, email or meeting.

We don’t want our clients to be scared to contact us and potentially lose out on valuable tax saving advice. It's even more important when you first start out as you really need to set your business up in the best way possible. As a start up you’ll probably have loads of questions and will really appreciate the fact you can call your accountant as many times as you like without the fear of racking up large bills.

Our low cost, all-inclusive fixed-fee accountancy service includes unlimited access to your own accountant throughout the year, so you never need to worry about picking up the phone and then receiving a bill afterwards for the privilege, and covers all your business and personal tax affairs needs. All clients additionally receive: 

  • Help to run your business in the most tax efficient way possible
  • Help so you can understand the taxes you need to pay
  • Advice on the best ways to manage your business
  • Updates and reminders so you'll never miss a deadline
  • Help to ensure you maximise your tax allowances
  • Provide proactive tax advice throughout the year

We’ve saved our clients up to half on their accountancy bills – if you’d like a quote, click on the quote me button to the right of this page. Alternatively, call us on 0500 234111 / 01442 275767 or email jessica@easyaccountancy.co.uk

We also have a money-back service guarantee - all of your telephone calls and emails will be answered on the same day, or we will refund your monthly fee (another first within the accountancy world).

To appoint us as your accountants, please fill in our Client Agreement Form online.

If you are a contractor working through a limited company then visit SJD Accountancy (our sister company) who specialise in providing tax advice and accountancy services for Limited Company contractors. You can also keep up to date by following the SJD Accountancy Twitter

You may also find the following pages helpful: