Taxation issues have grown in importance relating to plant and machinery with the Government regularly introducing changes or enhancements to the tax structure to increase investment in British industry. Capital Allowances enable substantial benefits to be achieved through the available writing off provisions, but all too often this tax saving is under-utilised either through lack of client knowledge or misunderstandings relating to eligibility to claim.

Valuation and investigation techniques are commonly used in the due diligence phase of work carried out by accountants. This impacts strongly on plant and machinery, covering the critical assessment of the adequacy of the asset base to maintain or increase current production levels, the reasonableness of the basis of capitalisation in the business and the extent to which the company is making maximum use of the assets it owns.