Depreciation Calculator
A year-by-year depreciation schedule for your books, Indian income tax or US MACRS.
Depreciation schedule
How this was calculated
Tax rules and rates change. This calculator follows the rules described on this page and may not cover every situation. Check the official source or a qualified tax professional before filing or invoicing.
About the Depreciation Calculator
Depreciation spreads the cost of an asset — a machine, a vehicle, a building, a laptop — over the years it is used. The calculator draws up the full schedule three ways:
- Accounts (books): straight line, written-down value, declining balance (DDB), sum of the years’ digits or units of production, as allowed by IAS 16 / Ind AS 16, with the useful lives of Schedule II to the Companies Act, 2013 one click away and a part first year worked out from the date the asset was put to use.
- India income tax: the block-of-assets method of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (section 33), with the Appendix I rates of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, half the rate for assets used less than 180 days in the year, and the short-term capital gain when sale proceeds exceed the block.
- US tax (MACRS): the General Depreciation System percentages of IRS Publication 946 for 3- to 20-year property (half-year or mid-quarter), residential rental and nonresidential real property (mid-month).
Every result shows the formula with your numbers and downloads as CSV. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
How to use it
- Choose Accounts, India income tax or US tax (MACRS).
- For accounts: pick the method, optionally the Schedule II asset class (it fills in the useful life), and enter the cost, residual value and life. Add the date the asset was put to use for a part first year, and the month your financial year starts.
- For income tax: pick the block (its rate fills in), then enter the opening written-down value, this year’s additions — split by whether they were used for 180 days or more — and the sale proceeds of anything sold.
- For MACRS: pick the property class and convention, and enter the basis (after any section 179 deduction and bonus depreciation) and the year placed in service.
- Read the first year’s depreciation and the schedule, check the notes, then copy the summary or download the schedule as CSV.
Examples
Cost ₹10,00,000 · residual value ₹50,000 (5%) · Schedule II life 15 years
₹63,333.33 a year for 15 years
Rate from cost, residual value and life: 1 − (50,000 ÷ 10,00,000)^(1/15)
Rate 18.10% · year 1 ₹1,81,036.27 · book value ₹50,000 at the end of year 15
₹1,20,000, no residual value, 3 years, straight line, put to use on 1 October 2026 (financial year from April)
FY 2026-27: ₹19,945.21 (182 of 365 days) · FY 2027-28 and 2028-29: ₹40,000 · FY 2029-30: ₹20,054.79
Opening WDV ₹5,00,000 · bought ₹2,00,000 (used 180+ days) and ₹1,00,000 (used less) · sold for ₹50,000
WDV ₹7,50,000 · depreciation ₹1,05,000 (₹6,50,000 × 15% + ₹1,00,000 × 7.5%) · closing WDV ₹6,45,000
Basis $10,000
$2,000 · $3,200 · $1,920 · $1,152 · $1,152 · $576 (Table A-1)
Common uses
- Prepare the depreciation schedule of a fixed asset for a company’s accounts under Schedule II.
- Work out the income-tax depreciation of a block for the tax return, including the half-rate rule for late additions.
- Compare straight line and WDV before choosing an accounting policy.
- Check the MACRS deductions for equipment or rental property on a US return.
The book methods and their formulas
- Straight line:
(cost − residual value) ÷ useful lifeevery year. - Written-down value (WDV): each year, a fixed rate on the opening book value. To reach the residual value exactly at the end of the life, the rate is
1 − (residual ÷ cost)^(1 ÷ life)— 18.10% for 15 years and 25.89% for 10 years with a 5% residual value. You can type a rate instead; the last year of the life then writes the asset down to its residual value. - Declining balance: a rate of
factor ÷ life(2 = double declining) on the opening book value, never going below the residual value. With the switch, each year takes straight line over the remaining life when that is larger, so the asset reaches its residual value exactly — Excel’sVDB; without it you get Excel’sDDB. - Sum of the years’ digits:
(cost − residual) × remaining life ÷ (n(n + 1) ÷ 2)— for 10 years, 10/55 in the first year and 1/55 in the last, as Excel’sSYD. - Units of production:
(cost − residual) × units this year ÷ total expected units.
IAS 16 and Ind AS 16 (paragraphs 50–62) require the method to reflect how the asset’s benefits are used up, and the residual value and useful life to be reviewed at least at each year end.
Schedule II to the Companies Act, 2013
Part C of Schedule II lists useful lives, such as 15 years for general plant and machinery, 60 years for RCC-framed buildings other than factories, 30 years for factory buildings, 10 years for furniture, 8 years for cars not used for hire, 3 years for laptops and desktops, 6 years for servers and networks and 5 years for office equipment. A company may use a different life or a residual value above 5% of the original cost only if its financial statements disclose the difference and justify it with technical advice.
For an asset added or sold during the year, Schedule II requires depreciation pro rata from the date of addition or up to the date of sale. The calculator does this by days: a first year of 182 days out of 365 gets 182/365 of a year’s charge, and the schedule runs one financial year past the useful life. Extra-shift depreciation (50% more for double shift and 100% more for triple shift, for assets not marked NESD) is not included.
Income tax: depreciation on a block of assets
Under section 33 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, depreciation is allowed on the written-down value of each block — all the assets that carry the same rate — at the rate in Appendix I of the Income-tax Rules, 2026: 15% for most plant and machinery, 40% for computers and software, 10% for furniture and most buildings, 5% for residential buildings, 25% for intangible assets.
- WDV of the block (section 41(1)(c)) = opening WDV + cost of assets acquired in the year − money received for assets sold, discarded or destroyed (with scrap value).
- Half the rate for an asset acquired in the year and put to use for less than 180 days in it (section 33(4)).
- If the sale proceeds exceed the opening WDV plus the year’s additions, the excess (less selling expenses) is a short-term capital gain and no depreciation is allowed (section 74(2)). If every asset of a block is sold, the block ceases to exist and the result is a short-term capital gain or loss (section 74(3)).
- Rule 25(2) caps depreciation at 40% of the WDV for individuals and others taxed in the default regime of section 202(1), and for companies and co-operative societies that opted for the concessional rates — which matters only for rates above 40%.
The Income-tax Act, 2025 applies from tax year 2026-27. Choose 2025-26 for the year before (assessment year 2026-27), which the Income-tax Act, 1961 still governs: the block is worked out the same way, and the notes cite the matching provisions — section 32(1)(ii) and its second proviso (half the rate), section 43(6)(c) (WDV of the block), section 50 (capital gains) and rule 5(1A) of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 (the 40% limit).
Additional depreciation for new plant and machinery of manufacturers (section 33(8)–(9)) and the actual-cost method for power undertakings (section 33(2)) are not included.
US MACRS (General Depreciation System)
For US federal tax, most business property placed in service after 1986 is depreciated under MACRS. The calculator uses the GDS percentage tables of IRS Publication 946, Appendix A: Table A-1 (half-year convention) and A-2 to A-5 (mid-quarter, by the quarter placed in service) for 3-, 5-, 7- and 10-year property (200% declining balance) and 15- and 20-year property (150%), A-6 for residential rental property (27.5 years) and A-7a for nonresidential real property (39 years), both mid-month.
The mid-quarter convention applies when more than 40% of the depreciable basis of all property placed in service in a year was placed in service in its last three months. The percentages apply to the unadjusted basis — cost minus any section 179 deduction and special (bonus) depreciation — and ignore salvage value. The ADS, elective straight-line and 150% methods, short tax years and dispositions are not covered.
Limitations
- One asset (or one income-tax block) at a time.
- Book depreciation: extra-shift depreciation, impairment, revaluation and changes of estimate during the life are not modelled. Component accounting (Schedule II note 4) means running each significant part as its own asset.
- Income tax: additional depreciation, power undertakings on the straight-line basis, and blocks transferred in amalgamations, demergers or successions are not covered. Selling expenses are not deducted from the capital gain shown.
- MACRS: GDS tables only, full 12-month tax years, property kept for the whole recovery period; no section 179, bonus depreciation, ADS or listed-property limits.
- Amounts are rounded to the paisa or cent each year; the last year absorbs the rounding so the total is exact.
Privacy
Everything is calculated in your browser. The asset details and schedules are never uploaded or stored on a server.
Frequently asked questions
What is the WDV rate for a useful life of N years?
With the Companies Act’s maximum residual value of 5%, the rate is 1 − 0.05^(1/N): 45.07% for 5 years, 25.89% for 10, 18.10% for 15, 9.50% for 30 and 4.87% for 60 years. The calculator works it out from your own cost, residual value and life.
Do I get the full year’s depreciation if I buy an asset in March?
In the accounts, no: Schedule II requires pro-rata depreciation from the date of addition, so an asset put to use on 1 March gets 31/365 of a year in a financial year ending on 31 March. For income tax, an asset acquired and put to use for less than 180 days in the tax year gets half the yearly rate, whatever the exact number of days.
Why is the income-tax depreciation different from the depreciation in the accounts?
The two follow different rules: the accounts use the company’s chosen method and useful lives (Schedule II), while income tax uses the block-of-assets WDV method at the rates in the Income-tax Rules. The difference is one source of deferred tax.
Which is better, SLM or WDV?
Neither is better in general. WDV charges more in the early years and suits assets that lose value or usefulness quickly; straight line suits assets used evenly over their life. IAS 16 and Ind AS 16 ask for the method that reflects how the asset’s benefits are consumed, applied consistently.
What is the difference between DDB and SYD?
Both are accelerated methods. Double declining balance applies twice the straight-line rate to the falling book value; sum of the years’ digits applies a falling fraction to the fixed depreciable amount. SYD always ends exactly at the residual value; DDB needs a switch to straight line (or a final write-down) to do so.
Is the MACRS result my tax deduction?
It is the GDS deduction from the IRS tables for the basis you enter. Your actual deduction can differ with a section 179 election, bonus depreciation, business-use percentage, a short tax year or a disposition — check Form 4562 instructions or a tax professional.