Not overly helpful to the majority of fast growing UK companies but the annual investment allowance for expenditure on machinery, equipment, furniture etc went up from £25,000 to £250,000 with effect from 1 January 2013.

This means that you could purchase (in theory!) £250,000 of laptops, tablets, desks, chairs etc in a financial year and receive a 100% tax deduction against your taxable profits.

So just imagine, you could splash out on:

• 447 64GB iPads
• 784 Nexus 10 tablets (if they were in stock!)
• 333 of these rather luxurious office chairs

and receive £250,000 tax relief!

Not very likely – but still, nice to know….

Watch out for financial accounting periods that straddle the 1 Jan 2013 introduction date as you’ll need to calculate how much qualifying spend is eligible under the ‘old’ £25,000 limit to 31 Dec 2012 and how much falls within the new much higher limit from 1 Jan 2013.

As ever, timing is everything!

(And no, cars do not qualify for relief under this Annual Investment Allowance (AIA) )