Capital Allowances Act 1990

85 Writing-down allowances

(1) Subject to the provisions of this Part, where—

(a) an approved body or a body which has been an approved body is, at the end of a chargeable period or its basis period, entitled to an interest in a building, and

(b) at the end of that chargeable period or its basis period, the building is or includes a qualifying dwelling-house or two or more qualifying dwelling-houses, and

(c) that interest is the relevant interest in relation to the capital expenditure incurred on the construction of that building,

an allowance (“a writing-down allowance”) shall be made to that body for that chargeable period in respect of the dwelling-house or, as the case may be, each dwelling-house falling within paragraph (b) above.

(2) The writing-down allowance in respect of a dwelling-house shall be equal to one-twenty-fifth of the capital expenditure which is appropriate to that dwelling-house, except that for a chargeable period of less than a year that fraction shall be proportionately reduced.

(3) If, in the case of a building which is or includes a qualifying dwelling-house—

(a) the interest which is the relevant interest in relation to any expenditure is sold, and

(b) the sale is an event to which section 87(1) applies,

then, subject to any further adjustment under this subsection on a later sale, the writing-down allowance in respect of that dwelling-house for any chargeable period, if that chargeable period or its basis period ends after the time of the sale, shall be the residue, as defined in section 90(1), of that expenditure immediately after the sale, reduced in the proportion (if it is less than one) which the length of the chargeable period bears to the part unexpired at the date of the sale of the period of 25 years beginning with the time when the building was first used.

(4) Notwithstanding anything in subsections (1) to (3) above, in no case shall the amount of a writing-down allowance made to a body for any chargeable period in respect of any expenditure exceed what, apart from the writing-off falling to be made by reason of the making of that allowance, would be the residue of that expenditure at the end of that chargeable period or its basis period.