Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Depreciation Methods
Service Output
Straight Line
Depreciation
Depreciation
Sum-of-the-Years Digit
Depreciation
Declining Balance Sinking-Fund
Depreciation Depreciation
The purpose of recording depreciation as an expense is to spread the initial price of the asset over
its useful life.
CONTENTS
DEPRECIATION THEORY
METHODS OF DEPRECIATION
Straight Line Depreciation.
Declining Balance Depreciation.
Sum-of-Years-Digit Depreciation.
Sinking-Fund Depreciation.
Service Output Depreciation.
DEPRECIATION THEORY
Depreciation is an artificial (non-cash) accounting entry intended to capture consumption
of a capital asset over its economic life.
Depreciation increases after tax profit, so firms desire to depreciate assets as fast as
possible (depreciation schedule has major tax implications).
METHODS OF DEPRECIATION
Dt = (P - F)/n
Bt = Bt-1 - Dt
= P - t*[(P - F)/n]
We can also say that the accumulated sum at the end of the life of asset is exactly equal to
the purchase value of the asset.
DECLINING BALANCE DEPRECIATION
In this method, a constant percentage of the book value of the previous period of the asset
will be charged as the depreciation amount for the current period. The formula to calculate
the depreciation and book value is given below:-
Dt = K * Bt-1
Bt = Bt-1 - Dt
= Bt-1 - K * Bt-1
= (1 - K) * Bt-1
And in terms of p depreciation and book value are as follows:
Dt = K(1 - K)t-1 * P
Bt = (1 - K)t * P
While availing income tax exception for the depreciation amount paid in each year, the rate
K is limited to at the most 2/n-1. If the rate is used, then the corresponding approach is
called the double declining balance method.
SUM-OF-THE-YEARS DIGIT DEPRECIATION
In this method of depreciation, it is assumed that the book value of the asset decreases at
the decreasing rate.
For any year, the depreciation is calculated by multiplying the corresponding rate of
depreciation with (P – F).
Dt = Rate * (P – F)
Bt = Bt-1 –Dt
The formula for Dt and Bt for a specific
year t are as follows:
Dt = 2*[( n – t +1)/n(n + 1)] * (P – F)
Bt = (P – F) * [(n – t)/n] *[ (n – t +1)/(n + 1)] +F
The rate of depreciation charge for the first year is assumed as the highest and then it
decreases.
SINKING-FUND DEPRECIATION
In this method of depreciation , the book value decreases at increasing rate with
respect to the life of the asset.
Generalized formula for Depreciation is
Dt = (P – F) * (A/F, i, n) * (F/A, i, t-1)
The formula to calculate the book value at the end of period t is
Bt = P – (P – F)*(A/F, i, n)*(F/A, i, t)
If we calculate the depreciation amount and booked value for all the periods, then the
tabular approach would be better.
SERVICE OUTPUT DEPRECIATION
In some situation, it may not be realistic to compute depreciation based on time period. In
such cases, the depreciation is computed based on service method by an asset.