Oh, can the company claim a deduction for putting a coffee machine in Bill's home?I think some posters have conflated the OP's two very different sources of income / entities. My understanding is that the question is whether or not @Bill90. can have his Ltd company, which is involved in transport, acquire a coffee machine to be made available for use by all company employees(i.e. himself), while working.
First point: the purchase of plant and machinery is a capital expense, so the purchase cost wouldn't be deductible against the company's income. Instead, the question that should be asked is whether the company could claim a capital allowance in respect of the machine — i.e. deduct the cost of the machine from income over a number of years in installments (specifically, over 8 years in annual instalments of 12.5% of the purchase price of the machine).
I doubt it. Here the "wholly and exclusively" test is relevant; I don't think Revenue will accept that a coffee machine placed in an employee's home will be used wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the trade carried on by the company.
(It does not matter that there is already another coffee machine in the house; there is no reason to assume that those in the home will select which coffee machine to use on the basis of whether the occasion for consuming coffee arises in connection with the company's trade. They are more likely to select whichever coffee machine produces the brew that they find more to their taste.)
It would be different if the coffee machine were installed in a premises that was occupied and used wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the company's trade. And it might be different if the company were installing in an employee's home some item of equipment that, inherently, had an exclusive or predominant business use. (I think Revenue will readily accept a claim for capital allowances in relation to , e.g., computers, scanners, printers, etc, provided to employees for use in working from home, on the thinking that any non-business use will be incidental.)
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