Funny the things you pick up at tax and accountancy seminars. Apparently the canopies over many BP petrol stations include photovoltaic (PV) panels which produce electricity, as well as giving BP some green credentials to show off. Is this true? Do any other petrol companies do this these days? I guess it is one of those green schemes that also makes commercial sense. It also prompts the thought that a lot of the finance for developing green technologies is going to come from the energy companies themselves - it’s in their long-term interests - despite the pariah status accorded to them by the recycled socialists that sadly make up so much of the green movement.
What does it have to do with tax? Well, as the canopies contain the PV cells, they are classed as “plant” and so qualify for capital allowances (probably enhanced capital allowances for energy saving equipment), whereas otherwise they would simply be part of the setting in which the trade is carried on, and so allowances would be unavailable (per Dixon v Fitch’s Garage 1975). But then you knew that anyway. 
I could go on about the so-called “simplification” and “tax cuts” relating to capital allowances that Gordon Broon introduced in this year’s Finance Bill, but I get the feeling that I might be losing you now….
