Depreciation rate finder NZ

Quickly find the depreciation rates for your New Zealand business assets. Briefly describe your asset below.

How the depreciation rate finder works

The depreciation rate finder uses the latest AI large language model (LLM) to search the IRD’s 3,000 asset categories and find the most relevant category, and corresponding depreciation rates, for your asset.

Often there are asset categories which can appear similar. In this situation the AI will also list the similar categories and explain how they are relevant.

You can confirm the asset category and corresponding depreciation rates the AI has suggested by checking the relevant page of the IRD’s general depreciation rates guide.

Diminishing value (DV) or Straight line (SL)?

To calculate depreciation you need to decide which depreciation method you’re going to use. Both will depreciate your asset, but at different speeds.

There are two depreciation methods to choose from; Diminishing value (DV) and Straight line (SL). The total depreciation you can claim over an asset’s life is the same for both methods. DV depreciates at a high rate for the start of an asset’s life and has a reducing rate each year. SL depreciates at the same rate each year. Use DV if you want to claim the asset depreciation quickly and use SL if you would prefer to spread the depreciation over a longer period of time. The most commonly used method is DV.

For more detail on how Diminishing value (DV) and Straight line (SL) depreciation is calculated refer to the IRDs website:

Calculating depreciation

Once you have chosen a depreciation method, there are two tools for calculating depreciation:

IRD Depreciation rate calculator: The IRD depreciation rate calculator will give calculate the yearly depreciation of your asset that you can then add to your end of year tax return.
Solo Tax App: Solo automatically calculates depreciation on your assets live during the year and generates a ready-to-file income tax return for you.