Capital Allowances Act 2001 section 54

The different kinds of pools

Section 54 sets out the three types of capital allowance pools into which qualifying expenditure on plant and machinery must be allocated: single asset pools, class pools, and the main pool.

• Qualifying expenditure is grouped into one of three pool types: single asset pools (for one asset only), class pools (for groups of similar assets), or the main pool (the default for everything else)
• Single asset pools are required for short-life assets, ships, assets used partly for non-qualifying purposes, assets attracting partial depreciation subsidies, and contribution allowances for plant and machinery
• Class pools cover special rate expenditure and expenditure on overseas leasing, allowing multiple assets of the same category to be pooled together
• The main pool acts as the residual pool — qualifying expenditure goes there only if it does not need to be allocated to a single asset pool or a class pool