Depreciation Calculator
Calculate asset depreciation with straight-line, declining balance, double-declining balance, or sum-of-years-digits methods, and see a full year-by-year schedule of depreciation expense and book value.
Input
Estimated resale/scrap value at the end of the asset's useful life.
Output
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| No data yet | |
| Year | Beginning Book Value | Depreciation Expense | Accumulated Depreciation | Ending Book Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No data yet | ||||
Guides
What is asset depreciation?
Depreciation spreads an asset's cost over its useful life instead of expensing it all at once. It reflects how equipment, vehicles, and other fixed assets lose value through wear, age, or obsolescence — and it's a standard input for financial statements, tax planning, and budgeting for replacement.
How this tool works
- Choose a depreciation method — straight-line, declining balance with a custom rate, double-declining balance, or sum-of-years-digits.
- Enter the asset cost, the salvage value (its estimated worth at the end of its useful life), and the useful life in years.
- For the declining-balance method, set the declining rate — the percentage of the prior year's book value written off each year.
- The Summary shows the total depreciable amount, first-year depreciation, total accumulated depreciation, and final book value. The Depreciation Schedule breaks down every year's beginning book value, depreciation expense, accumulated depreciation, and ending book value — copyable and downloadable as CSV.
Choosing a method
- Straight-line depreciates the same dollar amount every year —
(cost − salvage) / useful life. Simplest and most common for financial reporting. - Declining balance applies a fixed percentage to the prior year's book value each year, front-loading larger deductions early on. You control the rate directly.
- Double-declining balance is a preset declining-balance method using twice the straight-line rate (
2 / useful life) — a common accelerated-depreciation choice. - Sum-of-years-digits is another accelerated method that also front-loads depreciation, using a different weighting formula than declining balance.
Declining-balance methods never depreciate an asset below its salvage value — this tool caps each year's expense so the book value stops exactly at the salvage value rather than going negative or below it.
Common uses
- Estimating annual depreciation expense for accounting or tax planning
- Comparing straight-line vs. accelerated methods for the same asset
- Building an asset's book-value schedule for budgeting or replacement planning
- Modeling depreciation as an input to a larger ROI or NPV/IRR analysis
Privacy
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your numbers are never uploaded to a server.
Is this a substitute for tax advice?
No — this is a planning helper, not a substitute for your jurisdiction's tax or accounting rules. It doesn't model conventions like mid-year/mid-month averaging, bonus depreciation, or asset-class-specific schedules (e.g. MACRS). Consult a tax professional for filings.