Free MACRS depreciation calculator
Build a year-by-year MACRS schedule for US tax depreciation. Enter the asset cost, pick a property class, and read the IRS half-year percentages down to a zero basis. No sign-up, nothing uploaded.
MACRS depreciation (US tax)
General Depreciation System, half-year convention. Enter the asset's cost basis and pick its property class to build the year-by-year IRS schedule.
Vehicles, computers, office machinery, R&D equipment.
MACRS ignores salvage value and depreciates the full basis to zero. Informational only — not tax advice; confirm with a tax professional.
| Year | Rate | Depreciation | Accumulated | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 20% | $2,000 | $2,000 | $8,000 |
| 2 | 32% | $3,200 | $5,200 | $4,800 |
| 3 | 19.2% | $1,920 | $7,120 | $2,880 |
| 4 | 11.52% | $1,152 | $8,272 | $1,728 |
| 5 | 11.52% | $1,152 | $9,424 | $576 |
| 6 | 5.76% | $576 | $10,000 | $0 |
MACRS (Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System) is the depreciation method the IRS requires for most business property placed in service after 1986. Unlike book methods, MACRS ignores salvage value, uses fixed percentage tables tied to a property class, and writes the asset down to zero. This calculator uses the General Depreciation System (GDS) with the half-year convention, which treats every asset as placed in service mid-year — so a 5-year asset actually depreciates across six tax years.
Picking the property class is the step people get wrong. The class sets the recovery period: vehicles, computers, and most office machinery are 5-year; office furniture, fixtures, and general machinery are 7-year; land improvements such as fences and parking lots are 15-year. The dropdown above lists common assets for each class, but the IRS asset-class tables in Publication 946 are the authority when an asset is ambiguous.
Section 179 and bonus depreciation are separate elections that sit on top of MACRS: Section 179 lets a business immediately expense qualifying property up to an annual dollar limit in the year of purchase, and MACRS then depreciates whatever basis remains. Because the Section 179 limit and phase-out threshold are indexed and change with legislation each year, verify the current figures before you elect — for the 2026 tax year, confirm the limit and phase-out threshold with the IRS or your accountant. This calculator schedules the MACRS recovery, not the 179 deduction.
MACRS is for the tax return. For financial-statement (book) depreciation — straight-line, declining balance, sum-of-years'-digits, or units of production — use the depreciation calculator. Whichever you run, the schedule is only as reliable as the asset record behind it: UNIO24 keeps cost, in-service date, and class on every asset so the numbers come from your register instead of a spreadsheet. See the asset management module for how the data is captured. MACRS ignores salvage value and depreciates to a zero basis; to estimate an asset's real end-of-life worth for planning, use the salvage value calculator.
MACRS depreciation — common questions
Property classes, conventions, and how Section 179 fits in.
Why does a 5-year asset show six years of depreciation?
The half-year convention assumes the asset was placed in service halfway through year one, so only half a year of depreciation is taken up front. The remaining half carries into an extra year, which is why a 5-year class produces a six-year schedule and a 7-year class produces eight.Does MACRS use salvage value?
No. MACRS ignores salvage value entirely and depreciates the full cost basis down to zero. That is one of the main differences from book methods like straight-line, where you stop depreciating at the estimated salvage.How do I find the right property class?
Two cases the dropdown does not cover. If an asset has no designated class life in Publication 946, the General Depreciation System defaults it to the 7-year class — a safe fallback when you are unsure. And real property is outside these classes entirely: residential rental is 27.5 years and commercial buildings 39 years, neither of which this tool schedules. Note too that the placed-in-service date, not the purchase date, sets which tax year the schedule begins.
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