Guide to depreciating assets 2008-09

Accelerated rates of depreciation

You only use the tables below if you are able to use accelerated depreciation - see Accelerated depreciation. You use the rate that corresponds to the effective life of the item of plant. The following tables show the appropriate rates.

For most general items of plant the accelerated rates are as follows (note that the first three categories are unlikely to apply for currently held items as the rates only apply to items acquired before 1 July 2001 with an effective life of less than seven years):

Effective life in years	Prime cost rate %	Diminishing value rate %
Less than 3	100	-
3 to less than 5	40	60
5 to less than 62/3	27	40
62/3 to less than 10	20	30
10 to less than 13	17	25
13 to less than 30	13	20
30 or more	7	10

For most cars and motorcycles the following rates apply (note that the first three categories are unlikely to apply for currently held cars and motorcycles as the rates only apply to items acquired before 1 July 2001 with an effective life of less than seven years):

Effective life in years	Prime cost rate %	Diminishing value rate %
Less than 3	100	-
3 to less than 5	33	50
5 to less than 6 2/3	20	30
6 2/3 to less than 10	15	22.5
10 to less than 13	10	15
13 to less than 20	8	11.25
20 to less than 40	5	7.5
40 or more	3	3.75

Sections within Guidelines for using the depreciating assets worksheet

• Examples of effective lives - from Taxation Ruling TR 2008/4 (from 1 July 2008)
• Accelerated rates of depreciation