Treasury extends IT capital allowance tax relief

For one year

The Treasury is to extend 100 per cent capital relief on information and communication technology infrastructure spending for small businesses by one year to March 31, 2004.

At the same time more businesses will be entitled "to benefit from the 40 per cent plant and machinery and 100 per cent ICT allowances". Presumably this means that the maximum company size qualification criteria is to be increased. The scheme, introduced in March 2000, is currently designed for businesses turning over less than £2.8 million, with assets of less than £1.4 million, and fewer than 50 employees.

The news comes today in Chancellor Gordon Brown's Budget, which contains one more potential tech goodie for SMEs - the extension of R&D tax credits to smaller businesses.

There is, of course, also a raft of new schemes designed to make Britain's entrepreneurs less harrassed and more entrepreneurial. The Treasury Take is here. ®

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