What Are the Different Ways to Calculate Depreciation?

For a company that owns assets, the annual asset reduction is reflected in its financial statements like the balance sheets and the tax depreciation reports. There are different ways in which the value of depreciation is calculated. This depends on the country or region, of course and the calculation method could depend on the type of a particular asset. Let us understand this with the example of strata corporations with five or more strata lots. They need to obtain a specific strata property act depreciation report.

Let us look at three different ways to calculate depreciation.

1. Straight-Line Depreciation:

This is a single dimension calculation. The basis of the calculation is the estimate of how long the life of a particular asset. The straight-line depreciation method assumes an estimated value of the asset after the passage of those many years. After that, it is a simple matter of subtracting the final value from the original value to get the amount of depreciation.

2. Sum-of-the-Years’ Digits Depreciation:

In this method, the useful life of an asset is calculated/estimated. The numbers of each of these years are totalled. So, if an asset has a 7 year estimated span, then the sum would be 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 28. So the rate of depreciation in the first year would be 7 / 28 = 25%. The second year’s depreciation would be 6 / 28 = 21%, and so on, till it depreciates by less than 4% in its last year.

3. Declining Balance Depreciation:

There is a difference in the ways in which the above two ways affect the depreciation amounts listed on an ATO tax depreciation schedule. The first one shows a uniform rate of depreciation throughout the expected life. The second one assumes a higher rate of depreciation in the initial years. This reduces as the years go by.

The declining balance depreciation method also takes in much higher depreciation in the initial years. The depreciation on any asset is usually written off the owner’s tax liability. That is why this method tries to write off the depreciation costs faster. The logic behind this is that most assets are more useful in their initial years.

Conclusion:

The interesting thing is that there are several more methods of calculating depreciation. The second even more interesting thing is that the rates and depreciation calculated by each of these methods would be different. That is why the services of an experienced and capable company like Deppro Victoria should be used. They have experts who would understand your business and your accounting styles. Accordingly, they would suggest the best way of calculating depreciation and claiming tax breaks.