The capital allowance for slurry storage facilities announced in Budget 2023 yesterday (Tuesday, September 27) will not apply to shed buildings, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has confirmed.
Responding to a question from Agriland at a press conference today (Wednesday, September 28), Minister McConalogue said that the capital allowance applies only to slurry storage.
Delivering Budget 2023 yesterday, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said that there would be a time-limited scheme for accelerated capital allowance for the construction of modern slurry storage facilities.
Farmers can claim on 50% of the expenditure over a two-year period, a shorter time scale that capital allowance is typically available for, but at a higher rate than usual.
“This will assist the sector in adopting environmentally positive farming practices,” the finance minister said.
It is planned that the scheme will be in place for three years from 2024, and will see the state forgo €9 million in tax in 2024, €18 million in 2025, and €9 million in 2026. Capital allowances are generally calculated on the net cost of the business asset or premises.
Although this will only apply to the slurry storage infrastructure, Minister McConalogue highlighted that the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) remains available to farmers to offset the cost of farm buildings.
The agriculture minister also said that the costing references for TAMS would be reviewed to take account of the new 10% levy on concrete products introduced to cover the cost of the scheme to redress the mica defective-concrete-block issue.
“In terms of TAMS, we are reviewing the costings around that as well to take into account the changes in relation to the concrete levy,” he said.
Minister McConalogue acknowledged that the concrete levy will add a cost to farm buildings, but added that the slurry storage capital allowance “is a very strong support”.
“I think from the point of view of farmers being able to use organic manure and slurry efficiently at farm level, we’re really going to see farms pick up that option that is available to them. I think that will significantly mitigate the impact on farmers,” he commented.