The taxpayer, a race track owner, sought to claim the cost of laying an artificial all-weather race track surface as a capital allowance. The commissioners had found that it retained a separate identity from the grass, requiring maintenance and so forth, and that therefore it was plant, not premises. The revenue appealed.
Held: The commissioners had failed to ask whether it formed part of the premises from which the company conducted its business. Without doing violence to the language, it could not be seen otherwise. It might be separately identifiable, but that did not change its character. This was not a question of fact and degree so as to bind the court to the commissioners decision, but of the meaning of the word premises as exemplified in the authorities.
Judges:
Hart J
Citations:
Times 11-Aug-2003, Gazette 18-Sep-2003
Statutes:
Capital Allowances Act 1990 24
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Inland Revenue Commissioners v Barclay Curle and Co Ltd 1969
Even a large structure used for the purposes of the trade may be capable of being plant. In this case a dry dock was used in trade of ship builders, ship repairers and marine engineers. . .
Cited – Cooke v Beach Station Caravans Ltd 1974
The excavation and construction of 2 swimming pools in a caravan park was held to be the provision of plant, not premises or setting. . .
Cited – Inland Revenue Commissioners v Scottish and Newcastle Breweries Ltd HL 4-Mar-1982
Expenditure on refurbishment, decor and fittings in hotels was held to be plant though forming part of the setting of the hotels. The House considered the interpretation of undefined expressions in fiscal legislation, such as ‘trade’, ‘income’, . .
Cited – Wimpy International Ltd v Warland 1988
Expenditure on modernising restaurants with shop fronts, floor and wall tiles, wall finishes, suspended ceilings, raised floors, fire doors and fire proofings was held not to be plant. The court asked what marks indicate that a structure premises of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Corporation Tax
Updated: 29 April 2022; Ref: scu.185846