Finance Act 1949

2 (1) Subject to the provisions of this Schedule, the annual allowance in respect of any machinery or plant for any year of assessment—

(a) may, if the person to whom the allowance is to be made so elects when he makes his claim for the allowance, be computed by reference to the amount of his capital expenditure in providing the machinery or plant; and

(b) shall in that event be five-fourths of the percentage of that amount specified in sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph.

(2) Subject to the provisions of sub-paragraph (3) of this paragraph, the said percentage is such percentage as may be determined by the Commissioners of Inland Revenue in relation to machinery or plant of the class in question for the year of assessment in question, being a percentage which is in their opinion equal to nine-tenths of the fraction of which the numerator is one and the denominator is the number of years in the anticipated normal working life of machinery or plant of that class:

Provided that it shall not be necessary for the said Commissioners to redetermine every such percentage yearly, and every such determination of a percentage under this sub-paragraph for any year of assessment shall apply also to subsequent years except so far as it is superseded by any subsequent determination.

(3) If, in the case of machinery or plant of any class—

(a) annual allowances for the year 1948-49 were commonly arrived at by applying five-fourths of some percentage to the cost of the machinery or plant; and

(b) a particular percentage was commonly in use for so arriving at those allowances,

that percentage shall, unless the Commissioners of Inland Revenue determine that it is no longer an appropriate percentage, be deemed to be a percentage determined by them in relation to machinery or plant of that class under sub-paragraph (2) of this paragraph for the year 1949-50, and the said sub-paragraph (2), including the proviso thereto, shall have effect accordingly; and if it is shown to the satisfaction of the said Commissioners that that percentage bears to the fraction specified in the said sub-paragraph (2) (computed by reference to an anticipated normal working life estimated as if during the year 1948-49) a higher proportion than nine-tenths, the said sub-paragraph (2) shall have effect in relation to machinery or plant of that class as if for the reference therein to nine-tenths there were substituted a reference to the said higher proportion.

(4) Machinery or plant may be treated for the purposes of this paragraph as being of a different class from other machinery or plant where the one is new when it is acquired and the other is not new when it is acquired, or, in the case of machinery or plant which is not new when it is acquired, where different periods have elapsed between the date when the machinery or plant was made or first put into use and the date of the acquisition thereof.

(5) In this paragraph, the expression " the anticipated normal working life " has the meaning assigned to it by sub-paragraph (6) of paragraph 1 of this Part of this Schedule, except that, in relation to a class consisting of machinery or plant which is not new when it is acquired, the reference in the said sub-paragraph (6) to the first putting into use of the machinery or plant shall be construed as a reference to the first putting into use thereof after the acquisition thereof.