A $2,200 laptop is two tax events on different clocks: the $200 of GST is a credit this quarter, and the $2,000 is written off over its effective life. Fin keeps both on one bank transaction — the activity statement takes the first, the asset register takes the second.
The GST path closes in the quarter you bought the asset. The treatment GST on Capital sends the $2,200 to G10 and the $200 to 1B on the activity statement, and that is done. The income-tax path stays open for the asset's whole effective life — two years for a laptop, eight for a car — and every time you ask for a schedule, Fin replays it from the acquisition date forward. Both start from the same transaction, which is why the register keeps the link to the bank line instead of asking you to retype the purchase.
The whole credit is claimed in the period of purchase. G10 on the worksheet, the GST inside it to 1B. Nothing carries forward.
The cost is not deductible at once. It is written off across the effective life, one income year at a time, and that is what the schedule computes.
Asset, category, acquired, cost, method, effective life, private share, and a written-down value that is worked out on demand rather than stored.
The depreciation schedule is print-ready and carries the same header as the activity statement: business name, tax identifier, financial year, asset count, total deductible and prepared date. Per asset, it shows these columns.
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Opening | The written-down value carried in from last year, or the cost in the year you acquired it. |
| Cost | First element of cost plus any transport, installation or improvements. |
| Method · Rate | Prime cost or diminishing value, and the percentage that method gives for this effective life. |
| Days held | Actual days in the year the asset was held — 366 in a leap year — so a mid-year purchase is prorated. |
| Decline in value | The full amount the asset declined this year, before any private-use reduction. This is what rolls forward. |
| Private | The private-use share, set once on the asset. |
| Deductible | Decline in value minus the private share — the amount you may claim this year. |
| Closing | Opening minus the full decline. Derived each time the schedule is built, never stored. |
Private use reduces what you may claim; it does not reduce the value carried into next year. A laptop used 70% for business declines by the full amount and rolls forward at the full closing value, while you deduct 70% of the decline. Folding the two into one number overstates next year's opening value, and the error compounds for as long as the asset lives. The document says so on its face.
Storing it would be faster and wrong. The moment you correct a cost, change the method, fix an effective life or adjust the business share, a stored figure is silently stale — and a schedule that disagrees with its own inputs is worse than no schedule, because it looks authoritative. Every request rebuilds each asset from its acquisition year forward, so a correction anywhere is right everywhere at once. The one seed that is stored is the opening written-down value for an asset you carry in mid-life from another system, because it has no history to replay.
Fin uses the two general methods on the ATO's own terms, counting the actual days held so a mid-year purchase is prorated, and clamping the decline at the opening value so an asset never goes below zero.
Prime cost
cost × (days held ÷ 365) × (100% ÷ effective life)
The same amount each year. A $2,000 laptop (GST excluded) with a two-year life held all year declines $1,000 in year one and $1,000 in year two.
Diminishing value
base value × (days held ÷ 365) × (200% ÷ effective life)
Front-loaded. The same laptop at 200% ÷ 2 years is a 100% rate, so the engine clamps year one at the full $2,000 and nothing is left to decline. Assets first held before 10 May 2006 use 150% instead of 200%. Days held can be 366 in a leap year.
The category picker reads from the Commissioner's Income Tax (Effective Life of Depreciating Assets) Determination 2025, and shows the determination's own wording beside each option rather than a number someone typed into a table. One row worth knowing: laptops are two years. The four-year figure repeated across the web is the desktop computer row. A country whose plugin publishes no list falls back to free entry rather than an empty dropdown — Fin asks, rather than inventing a life nobody verified.
The ATO has published a $20,000 instant asset write-off threshold for 2023-24, 2024-25 and 2025-26. For 2026-27 it has published nothing. Fin does not carry last year's figure forward: the immediate write-off method shows “confirm the current limit” with a link to the ATO page instead of a number, and a test in the product asserts no figure appears while the limit is unconfirmed. When the ATO publishes the 2026-27 threshold, the rate ledger updates and the document shows it with the date it took effect.
ATO — Simpler depreciation for small businessRecord the date you sold or scrapped an asset and what you received, and the schedule computes the balancing adjustment — the difference between the consideration and the written-down value on that date. Fin shows the figure for review and stops there: whether it is assessable income or a deduction depends on facts the register does not hold, such as a private-use history or whether the asset sat in a pool, so the call stays with you and your accountant.
Step 1
A picker lists the capital purchases on your bank feed, largest first. Assets already linked to a transaction are hidden so the same purchase cannot be registered twice, and forecast bills are excluded — you cannot depreciate a prediction.
Step 2
Choose the asset type and the effective life fills itself in from the 2025 determination, with the determination’s wording shown beside it. Computers (laptops) are two years; desktops four.
Step 3
Transport, installation and improvements count in the cost base. Enter them here so the schedule depreciates the full amount rather than the invoice line alone.
Step 4
Prime cost, diminishing value, immediate write-off or pool — each with a line explaining when it applies. Set the business-use percentage; the schedule keeps the full decline and your deductible share as separate columns.
Step 5
The schedule replays each asset from its acquisition year to the year you asked for and prints opening, decline, deductible and closing per asset, with the business name, tax identifier and prepared date in the header.
The first clock. GST on Capital sends the purchase to G10 this quarter, with a provenance badge on the figure.
Activity statement, profit and loss, transaction report, depreciation schedule — and a taxable payments annual report where the country has one.
Effective life, prime cost, diminishing value, balancing adjustment — one quotable definition each.
Built for the way you work: freelancers, creators, growing businesses. Definitions: prime cost, diminishing value, balancing adjustment.
Depreciation, answered
The formulas, the effective lives and the write-off thresholds on this page come from these published sources:
Computed from published government rates and guidance. General information to prepare with, not personal tax advice — confirm what applies to you with your accountant or tax authority.
Pick the transaction, pick the category, and the schedule is drafted for this year and every year the asset lives.