Enter an asset's cost, salvage value, and useful life to calculate its depreciation schedule using either the straight-line or double-declining-balance method.
How to Use the Depreciation Calculator
Pick straight-line or double-declining with the toggle at the top, since the two methods use entirely different formulas — then cost, salvage value, and useful life produce both the annual figure and the full year-by-year schedule below.
An asset's value on the books doesn't fall in one straight line by necessity — how fast it "depreciates" for accounting purposes depends on which method a business elects to use, and the two most common ones produce noticeably different schedules.
Straight-Line: Annual Depreciation = (Cost − Salvage) ÷ Useful Life
Double-Declining: Annual Depreciation = Book Value × (2 ÷ Useful Life)Straight-line spreads the loss in value evenly across every year of the asset's useful life — same deduction each year, simplest to reason about. Double-declining-balance front-loads it instead, writing off a larger chunk in the early years and tapering off later, which better matches how a lot of equipment actually loses value (vehicles and machinery lose the most in year one). The double-declining schedule here stops reducing once book value would drop below salvage value, rather than continuing past it.
Tax rules in most countries prescribe specific depreciation methods and schedules that may not match either of these exactly — this tool covers the two standard accounting methods, not a specific tax code's requirements.