Capital Allowances Act 2001 section 38A

AIA qualifying expenditure

Section 38A defines what counts as AIA qualifying expenditure and who can claim the annual investment allowance.

• An annual investment allowance (AIA) is only available where the expenditure meets the definition of AIA qualifying expenditure.
• The expenditure must be incurred by a qualifying person — an individual, a partnership made up entirely of individuals, or a company — and must not fall within any of the general exclusions set out in section 38B.
• The expenditure must have been incurred on or after 1 April 2008 for corporation tax purposes, or 6 April 2008 for income tax purposes.
• When deciding whether expenditure qualifies, any rule that treats pre-trade expenditure as incurred at a different time (under section 12) is ignored — what matters is when the expenditure was actually incurred.