Double Declining Balance Method A Complete guide with Explanation

In addition to its benefits, double depreciation has a few disadvantages. The Ascent is a Motley Fool service that rates and reviews essential products for your everyday money matters. We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.

Depreciation is the act of writing off an asset’s value over its expected useful life, and reporting it on IRS Form 4562. The double declining balance method of depreciation is just one way of doing that. Double declining balance is sometimes also called the accelerated depreciation method. Businesses use accelerated methods when having assets that are more productive in their early years such as vehicles or other assets that lose their value quickly.

• For example, when a company purchases an expensive asset that it will use for several years, it does not deduct the entire purchase price at once as a business expense.
• Learn financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel shortcuts.
• Depreciation is the act of writing off an asset’s value over its expected useful life, and reporting it on IRS Form 4562.
• The depreciation rate would be calculated by multiplying the straight-line rate by two.
• He completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Accountancy at Silliman University in Dumaguete City, Philippines.

The total expense over the life of the asset will be the same under both approaches. In year 5, however, the balance would shift and the accelerated approach would have only $55,520 of depreciation, while the non-accelerated approach would have a higher number. Download this accounting example in excel to help calculate your own Double Declining Depreciation problems.

By reducing the value of that asset on the company’s books, a business is able to claim tax deductions each year for the presumed lost value of the asset over that year. Given the nature of the DDB depreciation method, it is best reserved for assets that depreciate rapidly in the first several years of ownership, such as cars and heavy equipment. By applying the DDB depreciation method, you can depreciate these assets faster, capturing tax benefits more quickly and reducing your tax liability in the first few years after purchasing them. After the first year, we apply the depreciation rate to the carrying value (cost minus accumulated depreciation) of the asset at the start of the period. Unlike the straight-line method, the double-declining method depreciates a higher portion of the asset’s cost in the early years and reduces the amount of expense charged in later years. However, using the double declining depreciation method, your depreciation would be double that of straight line depreciation.

How to calculate Depreciation

The double declining balance method accelerates depreciation charges instead of allocating it evenly throughout the asset’s useful life. Proponents of this method argue that fixed assets have optimum functionality when they are brand new and a higher depreciation charge makes sense to match the fixed assets’ efficiency. Accelerated depreciation is any method of depreciation used for accounting or income tax purposes that allows greater depreciation expenses in the early years of the life of an asset. Accelerated depreciation methods, such as double declining balance (DDB), means there will be higher depreciation expenses in the first few years and lower expenses as the asset ages.

He is a CFA charterholder as well as holding FINRA Series 7, 55 & 63 licenses. He currently researches and teaches economic sociology and the social studies of finance at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Double Declining Balance: A Simple Depreciation Guide

With your second year of depreciation totaling $6,720, that leaves a book value of $10,080, which will be used when calculating your third year of depreciation. The following table illustrates double declining depreciation totals for the truck. Whether you are using accounting software, a manual general ledger system, the benefits of software analysis at adp or spreadsheet software, the depreciation entry should be entered prior to closing the accounting period. We now have the necessary inputs to build our accelerated depreciation schedule. The prior statement tends to be true for most fixed assets due to normal “wear and tear” from any consistent, constant usage.

In the last year of an asset’s useful life, we make the asset’s net book value equal to its salvage or residual value. This is to ensure that we do not depreciate an asset below the amount we can recover by selling it. It is important to note that we apply the depreciation rate on the full cost rather than the depreciable cost (cost minus salvage value). Depreciation should be entered prior to closing the accounting period, whether it is using accounting software, a manual general ledger, or spreadsheet software.

Double-Declining Balance (DDB) Depreciation Formula

The double-declining balance method multiplies twice the straight-line method percentage by the beginning book value each period. Because the book value decreases each period, the depreciation expense decreases as well. In the final period, the depreciation expense is simply the difference between the salvage value and the book value. Since the assets will be used throughout the year, there is no need to reduce the depreciation expense, which is why we use a time factor of 1 in the depreciation schedule (see example below). A book value of $64,000 will apply to the asset at the beginning of Year 3.

The double declining balance depreciation rate is twice what straight line depreciation is. For example, if you depreciate your machine using straight line depreciation, your depreciation would remain the same each month. The formula used to calculate annual depreciation expense under the double declining method is as follows.

The amount of final year depreciation will equal the difference between the book value of the laptop at the start of the accounting period ($218.75) and the asset’s salvage value ($200). Sara wants to know the amounts of depreciation expense and asset value she needs to show in her financial statements prepared on 31 December each year if the double-declining method is used. For example, if an asset has a salvage value of $8000 and is valued in the books at $10,000 at the start of its last accounting year. In the final year, the asset will be further depreciated by $2000, ignoring the rate of depreciation.

How to Calculate Declining Balance Depreciation

So, the depreciation expense is calculated in the last year by deducting the salvage value from the opening book value. The best reason to use double declining balance depreciation is when you purchase assets that depreciate faster in the early years. A vehicle is a perfect example of an asset that loses value quickly in the first years of ownership. Unlike straight line depreciation, which stays consistent throughout the useful life of the asset, double declining balance depreciation is high the first year, and decreases each subsequent year. Companies will typically keep two sets of books (two sets of financial statements) – one for tax filings, and one for investors. Companies can (and do) use different depreciation methods for each set of books.

The above formula for the double-declining balance method does not come from accounting standards. However, it encompasses all the above-discussed steps to create a simplified method for calculating depreciation. Every year you write off part of a depreciable asset using double declining balance, you subtract the amount you wrote off from the asset’s book value on your balance sheet. Starting off, your book value will be the cost of the asset—what you paid for the asset.

Double Declining Balance Method Formula (DDB)

Companies prefer to use the double-declining method for assets expected to become obsolete more quickly. Even though the depreciation expense will be accelerated, the total depreciation throughout the asset’s life will remain the same. Double declining balance (DDB) depreciation is an accelerated depreciation method. DDB depreciates the asset value at twice the rate of straight line depreciation. Even if the double declining method could be more appropriate for a company, i.e. its fixed assets drop off in value drastically over time, the straight-line depreciation method is far more prevalent in practice. With the constant double depreciation rate and a successively lower depreciation base, charges calculated with this method continually drop.

The Double Declining Balance Method (DDB) is a form of accelerated depreciation in which the annual depreciation expense is greater during the earlier stages of the fixed asset’s useful life. Current book value is the asset’s net value at the start of an accounting period, calculated by deducting the accumulated depreciation from the cost of the fixed asset. Residual value is the estimated salvage value at the end of the useful life of the asset. And the rate of depreciation is defined according to the estimated pattern of an asset’s use over its useful life. Depreciation is the process by which you decrease the value of your assets over their useful life.

Over time, as maintenance becomes more regular, you will write off less of the value of the asset while writing off more in maintenance. This makes it easier to predict your income since your annual write-offs are more stable over time. The asset will have a book value of $51,200 at the beginning of Year 4. Accordingly, after multiplying the book value by 20%, the depreciation expense for Year 4 will be $10,240. At the start of the second year, the fixture’s book value will be $80,000, which is the cost of $100,000 minus the accumulated depreciation of $20,000. For Year 2, the $80,000 is multiplied by 20%, resulting in $16,000 of depreciation.

An asset for a business cost $1,750,000, will have a life of 10 years and the salvage value at the end of 10 years will be $10,000. You calculate 200% of the straight-line depreciation, or a factor of 2, and multiply that value by the book value at the beginning of the period to find the depreciation expense for that period. However, note that eventually, we must switch from using the double declining method of depreciation in order for the salvage value assumption to be met. Since we’re multiplying by a fixed rate, there will continuously be some residual value left over, irrespective of how much time passes.