Depreciation Calculator

This depreciation calculator works out how much of an asset’s cost you write off each year and what it is worth on the books at the end of each one. Type the cost, the salvage value you expect at the end and the useful life, then choose a method. The first-year amount, totals, a chart and the full schedule update as you type.

It covers the methods accountants actually use: straight-line, declining (reducing) balance at 150%, 200% or any fixed rate, with an optional switch to straight-line, sum-of-the-years’ digits and units of production. For Australian tax it also follows the ATO’s two decline in value formulas, prime cost and diminishing value, counting the days you held the asset in each income year exactly as the ATO does, leap years included.

Bought the asset partway through the year? Set the date it was first used and your financial year end, and the first year is cut to the months or days you really had it. A business-use percentage shows the deductible share. A comparison table puts every method side by side, and the schedule downloads as CSV. Nothing you type leaves your browser.

1. Choose a Method, type the Cost of the asset and, if needed, change the currency.
2. Enter the Salvage value and the Useful life in years (for ATO methods, the effective life).
3. Set the Date first used and when your Financial year ends. Tick Part-year first year to count only the months left in the first year.
4. Fill in any method options, such as the declining balance multiple or the units used each year, and the Business use percentage.
5. Read the first-year figure and the schedule, tap a method in Compare methods to switch, then Download CSV or Copy table.

• Six methods: straight-line, declining balance, sum-of-the-years’ digits, units of production, ATO prime cost and ATO diminishing value.
• Declining balance as a multiple of the straight-line rate (125% to 300%) or a fixed yearly rate, with an optional switch to straight-line.
• ATO formulas with real days held in each income year (366 in a leap year), and the 150% rate for assets held before 10 May 2006.
• Part-year first year by months, for any financial year end: 30 June, 31 March, 31 December or 30 September.
• Salvage value respected: the asset is never written below it.
• Business-use percentage with a deductible column.
• A chart of book value and each year’s depreciation, readable by tap, hover or arrow keys.
• A comparison of every method’s first and second year, and the full schedule as CSV or a copied table.

• Declining balance on its own never quite reaches the salvage value; tick the switch to straight-line to write the asset down on time.
• For units of production, list the units for each year in order. The schedule stops at the last year you list.
• For tax, use the method and life your tax authority allows. The ATO publishes effective lives; the US uses MACRS and the UK uses capital allowances instead.
• ATO diminishing value never reaches zero, so the schedule stops once a year’s claim would be under 1. Under $1,000 you may be able to pool the asset instead.
• Small businesses may be able to write off an asset at once under instant asset write-off rules; check your current threshold.