Depreciation on a property built in 2004

On a 2004 building, 2.5% of what it cost to construct, each year until 2043–44. For a standard 200 m² brick veneer house that is about $4,207 a year in New South Wales, $4,220 in Victoria and $3,664 in Queensland, with 18 income years left. Plant new to you adds to that, as does any renovation since 2004.

No: a 2004 building's 40 years run from its completion, not from your purchase, so a buyer claims the 18 income years left, 2026–27 to 2043–44, on the original construction cost rather than the price paid. Fitted new in 2004, 177 of the 181 kinds of plant our catalogue prices have passed their effective lives, and the other 4 end from 2028–29 to 2033–34. Section 40-27 reaches plant acquired from 7.30 pm on 9 May 2017, when a 2004 house was 13 years old or so: bought from an earlier owner since then, the plant that came with a 2004 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 2004, the 2004–05 to 2043–44 income years. Construction begun on any day of 2004 qualifies, the window having opened on 16 September 1987, and 22 of its 40 income years have passed.

In the year to 30 June 2004, our national series puts new houses at $761 per m² of floor area, 50% up over the ten years from 1994's $508, and the average new house, about 234 m², cost about $178,000 to build. At 2004's rates, our standard 200 m² single-storey brick veneer house, less the plant listed separately, cost about $152,165 at the national rate, against $142,698 in 2003 and $161,464 in 2005. In 2004 it was cheapest in Western Australia, at $103,073, and dearest in the Northern Territory, at $204,906. Where the 2004 build's own cost is not documented, a schedule estimates it at 2004's rates, about $152,165 for that house nationally, by an appropriately qualified person, as Taxation Ruling TR 97/25 accepts.