New relief for intangible assets

Key points

• New rules reintroduce tax relief for the amortisation of goodwill.
• The rate of relief is 6.5%.
• Relevant assets include goodwill in a business unregistered trademarks and licences.
• Restrictions apply to relief for assets acquired before April 2019.

It is not that long since the write-off of goodwill qualified for tax relief under the intangibles regime. But for a variety of reasons in 2015 the government decided that goodwill and other similar assets would not qualify for such tax relief. In early 2018 it reviewed how the tax treatment of acquired intangible assets could be made more competitive and administrable (tinyurl.com/rcifarfeb18).

After a short consultation the government introduced a targeted relief for the cost of goodwill in the acquisition of businesses with eligible intellectual property from April 2019 (tinyurl.com/cifatiinnov18). CTA 2009 s 816A – which prevents tax relief for the amortisation...