But our tax code allows the business the option of taking bigger deductions at the beginning of the period using an alternative method called the “double declining balance” method. The depreciation deductions would actually span six different tax years; the year the property is first used in the business is counted as a half-year, and another half-year is added at the end of the recovery period. A separate, related rule allows small businesses to “expense” investments up to a certain limit. Through accelerated deprecation method entity avails greater deductions in the form of depreciation during the initial years of the life of an asset.

In the event that you sell your asset at a price that is greater than its accounting value, there is a possibility that your profit may be categorized as recaptured depreciation. In Accelerated Depreciation, a capital asset loses its face value faster in an earlier year in comparison to later years. It is a process where the net value of depreciation in beginning is the highest while it gets reduced increasingly as the asset ages.

How Does Accelerated Depreciation Work?

Calculate the depreciation for the first two years using the double declining balance method. The depreciation percentage for the first year equals 1 divided by total life span years which will be 1 divided by 5, equaling .20. The depreciation for the first year will be the cost of the machinery ($10,000) times 2 times .20, resulting in $4,000. For the second year, the depreciation is the cost of the machinery ($10,000) minus the depreciation the first year ($4,000) results in $6,000. The DepreciationDepreciation is a systematic allocation method used to account for the costs of any physical or tangible asset throughout its useful life. Depreciation enables companies to generate revenue from their assets while only charging a fraction of the cost of the asset in use each year.

However, in accelerated depreciation, the rate of depreciation applied on assets is higher than that of the other methods of depreciation. In accelerated depreciation, the book value of assets gets reduced at a faster rate than applying the other traditional methods of depreciation. Importantly, the revenue raised from most of these options in the first decade is substantially higher than the second decade, or over the long term. For instance, fully repealing accelerated depreciation would raise approximately $775 billion over the first decade—approximately 0.36 percent of GDP.

How To Calculate Accelerated Depreciation

The Section 179 deduction lets you deduct up to $500,000 of asset purchases immediately, you do not need to spread the deduction over the assets‘ lives. Generally, in accelerated depreciation, the depreciation rate in the earlier years is higher, and in later years, the rate of depreciation gets reduced compared to traditional methods. Hence the difference between the traditional and accelerated method of depreciation is the timing difference of depreciation. If accelerated depreciation were repealed, it could be repealed only for C-Corporations or for all businesses, which would raise either $550 or $775 billion over ten years. Another option would be to retain some amount of accelerated depreciation, but update the schedule of class lives. These schedules have not been updated since 1986 and are calibrated based on the assumption that 25-year interest rates would be 5 percent.

Accelerated depreciation affects taxes by allowing businesses to deduct a larger portion of the cost of an asset in the early years of ownership. This results in a lower tax bill in the short term but may result in a higher tax bill in the long term when the asset is sold. Some businesses use accelerated depreciation for tax planning purposes to minimize their tax liability in the short term. This can be a risky strategy, however, as accelerated depreciation method it can result in a larger tax bill in the long term if the asset is sold for less than its original purchase price. Accelerated depreciation is an accounting method that allows businesses to recognize larger portions of the cost of a depreciable asset than allowed under traditional straight-line depreciation. This accelerated tax deduction benefits businesses by allowing for increased cash flow in the early years of an asset’s life.