Depreciation on a property built in 1999

On a 1999 building, 2.5% of what it cost to construct, each year until 2038–39. For a standard 200 m² brick veneer house that is about $3,151 a year in New South Wales, $3,079 in Victoria and $2,484 in Queensland, with 13 income years left. Plant new to you adds to that, as does any renovation since 1999.

No: a 1999 building's 40 years run from its completion, not from your purchase, so a buyer claims the 13 income years left, 2026–27 to 2038–39, on the original construction cost rather than the price paid. Fitted new in 1999, 179 of the 181 kinds of plant our catalogue prices have passed their effective lives, and the other 2 end from 2028–29 to 2028–29. Section 40-27 reaches plant acquired from 7.30 pm on 9 May 2017, when a 1999 house was 18 years old or so: bought from an earlier owner since then, the plant that came with a 1999 house is generally not deductible (the 2017 rules set out who it reaches and the exceptions).

2.5% a year over 40 years, for construction begun after 15 September 1987: counting from 30 June 1999, the 1999–00 to 2038–39 income years. Construction begun on any day of 1999 qualifies, the window having opened on 16 September 1987, and 27 of its 40 income years have passed.

In the year to 30 June 1999, our national series puts new houses at $545 per m² of floor area, 34% up over the ten years from 1989's $406, and the average new house, about 218 m², cost about $119,000 to build. At 1999's rates, our standard 200 m² single-storey brick veneer house, less the plant listed separately, cost about $109,689 at the national rate, against $105,580 in 1998 and $118,634 in 2000. In 1999 it was cheapest in Western Australia, at $72,864, and dearest in the Northern Territory, at $156,163. Where the 1999 build's own cost is not documented, a schedule estimates it at 1999's rates, about $109,689 for that house nationally, by an appropriately qualified person, as Taxation Ruling TR 97/25 accepts.