Double Declining Balance Method: A Depreciation Guide

Eric is a staff writer at Fit Small Business and CPA focusing on accounting content. He spends most of his time researching and studying to give the best answer to everyone. Even though year five’s total depreciation should have been $5,184, only $4,960 could be depreciated before reaching the salvage value of the asset, which is $8,000.

The DDB depreciation method can lead to greater depreciation recapture if you sell an asset before the end of its useful life. For more information on the recovery periods the IRS has assigned for specific depreciable assets, please see the previous Playbook section on straight-line depreciation. Let’s say you buy a computer server for your business for $25,000; you assume that there’s no salvage value. You want to use the 200% reducing-balance formula, and to depreciate this system over five years. If you receive a stock option from your employer, the type of stock option determines the timing of income you must report for tax purposes. The length of time you hold the stock acquired from the exercise of an option influences the type of income.

How to Calculate Double Declining Balance Depreciation

Double declining balance is useful for assets, such as vehicles, where there is a greater loss in value upfront. Additionally, it more quickly provides your business with a greater https://www.bookstime.com/ deprecation deduction on your taxes. For example, you purchase a truck for your delivery service. The cost of the truck including taxes, title, license, and delivery is $28,000.

• A constant depreciation rate is applied to an asset’s book value each year, heading towards accelerated depreciation.
• However, depreciation expense in the succeeding years declines because we multiply the DDB rate by the undepreciated basis, or book value, of the asset.
• If there was no salvage value, the beginning book balance value would be $100,000, with $20,000 depreciated yearly.
• It is often used to determine the value of a business or property that will be sold at some point.
• Its value indicates how much of an asset’s worth has been utilized.

It is a contra-account, the difference between the asset’s purchase price and its carrying value on the balance sheet. Now, $ 25,000 will be charged to the income statement as a depreciation expense in the first year, $ 18,750 in the second year, and so on for eight continuous years. Although all the amount is paid for the machine at the time of purchase, the expense is charged over time. Instead, the asset will depreciate by the same amount; however, it will be expensed higher in the early years of its useful life. The depreciation expense will be lower in the later years compared to the straight-line depreciation method. This method is used exclusively for machinery typically owned by large manufacturers. To get production in a given time period, you multiply the per-unit depreciation rate by the number of units produced during that time frame.

Tax advantages of using double declining depreciation

When the depreciation rate for the declining balance method is set as a multiple, doubling the straight-line rate, the declining balance method is effectively the double-declining balance method. Over the depreciation double declining balance method process, the double depreciation rate remains constant and is applied to the reducing book value each depreciation period. The book value, or depreciation base, of an asset, declines over time.