Equipment tax rules for a tree business in Ireland

This page reports what the official source says. It is not legal advice: ask the office named here. The office is Revenue. The wider comparison is on the equipment tax rules page.

What Revenue says about plant and machinery

Revenue's page on capital allowances and deductions for companies, published September 25, 2025, says a company may claim capital allowances on capital expenditure on certain business assets. It lists plant and machinery, motor vehicles, industrial buildings, transmission capacity rights, computer software and specified intangible assets. It says allowances are generally calculated on the net cost of the asset, with different rates by type of asset. The rate it names for plant and machinery is 12.5 percent over eight years.

The same page gives a worked example from Revenue. A machine bought for €25,000 excluding VAT and in use in the trade at year end gives a wear and tear allowance of €3,125 for that year and for each of the next seven periods, as long as the machine is in use for the trade at the end of each period. Revenue adds that the allowance may not be given in full if the period is shorter than 12 months or if the machine is used for a purpose other than the trade.

Cars and other vehicles

The Revenue manual on cars, last reviewed November 2019, covers vehicles that are essentially private passenger cars. It sets a wear and tear rate of 12.5 percent a year for car expenditure on or after December 4, 2002, which writes the allowable cost off evenly over 8 years. It says the allowance is apportioned on a time basis when a car has both business and private use.

The manual says the limit on allowable car expenditure applies to ordinary motor cars and does not apply to a vehicle of a type not normally used as a private vehicle and unsuitable to be so used. Its examples are vans, trucks and tractors, which it says can qualify for unrestricted capital allowances. For expenditure on or after July 1, 2008 the limit depends on the car's carbon dioxide emissions. The manual's table of earlier limits ends with €24,000 for expenditure from January 1, 2007.

Energy-efficient equipment

The Revenue manual updated January 2026 describes a scheme under section 285A of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997. It says accelerated capital allowances of 100 percent can be claimed in the year the equipment is first used for the trade, for equipment on the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland list, and that the scheme runs until December 31, 2030. It says that since January 1, 2022 equipment that operates on fossil fuel, other than on electricity made from such fuel, is not on the list. The manual has a section on electric and alternative fuel vehicles.

The facts in one table

Item	What Revenue says
Plant and machinery rate	12.5 percent over eight years
Car rate for expenditure from December 4, 2002	12.5 percent a year, evenly over 8 years
Vans, trucks and tractors	Outside the car limit
Energy-efficient equipment	100 percent in the first year of use, scheme to December 31, 2030
Mixed business and private use of a car	Allowance apportioned on a time basis

Sole traders and partnerships are not covered on the company page. Revenue's manual on energy-efficient equipment says the scheme was extended to unincorporated businesses from January 1, 2017.

Equipment tax rules for a tree business in Ireland

What Revenue says about plant and machinery

Cars and other vehicles

Energy-efficient equipment

The facts in one table

Sources