Is a Company Pool Table an Allowable Expense?

Our blogs on Can I get a Company Motorbike?  and Classic car as your company car? have been amongst some of our most popular postings to date, so I thought I’d write a series of blogs exploring some of the more unusual business purchases, from company yachts to gold coins, starting with… company pool tables!

Will the tax man really let me put a pool table through my books?

You may think the tax man would never be this generous.

The words ‘tax’ and ‘fun’ rarely go hand in hand for business owners.

However you’ll be pleasantly surprised to know that, YES, YOU CAN BUY A COMPANY POOL TABLE!

But why would I want to?

‘I pay my staff to work not to play’…

Modern firms are becoming increasingly more aware of the benefits of an office break out space including:

• Investment in staff wellbeing – providing a change of scenery for your employees allows them to de-stress and revitalise their creativity and energy levels at work.
• Promoting staff collaboration – in a mid – to large size office it’s not uncommon for staff members to go days without speaking to certain other team members. A breakout space provides an environment for staff socialisation and promotes co-worker relationships, leading ultimately to a team who can work better together.
• Boosting company morale – a happy team is a hard-working team. When a company invests in its employees’ wellbeing, those employees are far more likely to invest themselves in company goals.

What’s the tax position?

You’ll be able to both reclaim the VAT back on your company pool table purchase and claim 100% of the net cost of the pool table against your business profits via the annual investment allowance.

In real terms

Let’s say you buy a pool table for £1,000 + VAT, making your total spend £1,200.

Assuming you’re VAT registered, you can reclaim the £200 of VAT on your quarterly VAT return.

You can also deduct the net of £1,000 from your taxable profits – at a corporation tax rate of 25%, that’s a saving of £250.

So now your new shiny office pool table hasn’t cost you £1,200, it’s only cost you £750 with the tax savings.

Not to mention the priceless benefits of boosted productivity and morale in the office!

As long as the pool table is in the office, not in a home environment (no tax relief on your man cave, sorry!), then there are no P11D Benefit in kind implications for your employees.

Thing to be aware of

Beware that the equipment has to be mainly for employee use only.

If it turned out to be mainly used by customers and guests, then the spend would be classed as business entertainment and would be disallowed for VAT and corporation tax relief.

Is it only pool tables this applies to?

All of the above also applies to other recreational facilities provided for employees – perhaps you’re interested in an office football table, dart board or even a classic Space Invaders arcade machine!

Of course there are many other items you can purchase through your company – look out for the next blog in this series of weird and wonderful company purchases!

Getting in touch with us

At Friend & Grant we are always on the lookout for great ways for business owners to take advantage of the many benefits available from operating your own limited company.

To find out more about how we can help you save tax why not contact us to arrange a free initial meeting.

Our Services

To read more about our services please see our related pages below:

Accounting & Compliance

Reducing Tax

Blogs related to Allowable Expenses

Take a look at our other blogs on the topic of allowable expenses:

Is Training Tax Deductible?

Don’t let the Taxman ruin your day out!

The content in this blog is correct as at 7th August 2023. See terms and conditions.