Division 40 · every window
Blinds: effective life and depreciation rate
Each blind is a separate asset, tested against the $1,000 low-cost threshold on its own cost, not as a house's set; for the $300 write-off, identical or substantially identical blinds acquired in the same income year are counted together.
- Effective life
- 10 yrs
- DV · PC rate
- 20% · 10%
- Installed new, 2026
- $1,734
Five years of blinds bought new
Blinds costing $1,734, held for each full year, under each method. The $1,734 is for a whole house's blinds, and each blind is a separate asset. The table works them together at their own rate, none pooled, but each is tested on its own cost, which the house's price does not give: a blind that cost less than $1,000 can go into the low-value pool from the start, and one of $300 or less is written off in the year it is installed unless it is part of a set, or one of identical items, costing more than $300 together (section 40-80(2)).
| Year | Diminishing value 20% | Prime cost 10% |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $347 | $173 |
| 2 | $277 | $173 |
| 3 | $222 | $173 |
| 4 | $178 | $173 |
| 5 | $142 | $173 |
| Five years | $1,166 | $865 |
Full years of 365 days. Diminishing value and prime cost are worked by days held ÷ 365 (sections 40-72 and 40-75), so a year that includes 29 February, held throughout, claims 366/365 of what a 365-day year would on the same value. The first year is pro-rated by the days the item is held for earning rent, except in the pool, whose rates are not by the day.
What blinds cost installed, by year
- 2000$1,067
- 2010$1,285
- 2020$1,450
- 2026$1,734
The effective life of blinds fitted new in a property built in 2016 ends in 2026, while the building's own capital works deduction runs to the 2055–56 income year: see depreciation on a property built in 2016.
Price is for a whole house's blinds.
By dwelling type
Our dwelling pages price blinds with the typical plant of a house, a townhouse, a unit and an apartment in every state; two states of each:
- A house in Victoria
- A house in Queensland
- A townhouse in Western Australia
- A townhouse in the Northern Territory
- A unit in Tasmania
- A unit in Queensland
- An apartment in the Northern Territory
- An apartment in Queensland
Each is priced at its state's rates, and the state's own page sets the four types side by side: Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Common questions
What is the effective life of blinds?
10 years, as the Commissioner of Taxation determines it for "Window blinds, internal" under "Assets generally" in the residential property operators' table of the Income Tax Assessment (Effective Life of Depreciating Assets) Determination 2025, which most schedules use (an owner may estimate its own instead, section 40-105). Ten of the other 36 items here share it, among them a pool chlorinator and a pool filter.
What is the depreciation rate for blinds?
20% a year under diminishing value (200% ÷ 10), taken from what is left of the value: $347 of the $1,734 it costs installed new in the first full year, $142 in the fifth. Or 10% a year under prime cost (100% ÷ 10), taken from the cost: $173 in each of the first five. An item first held before 10 May 2006 takes 150% ÷ 10 under diminishing value.
Can I claim blinds that came with the property?
Generally not, for an individual, a self-managed super fund or most trusts and partnerships that bought an established property at or after 7.30 pm on 9 May 2017 (section 40-27; the 2017 rules set out who it reaches and the exceptions). Such plant is still valued, at what it costs new in the year the property is bought less its age and condition: for blinds 5 years old in good condition, about $867 of the $1,734 new in 2026, a value whose decline can make a capital gain or loss when it is sold or scrapped. For blinds bought new for the property while it is let, and never used while it was the owner's home, deductions start on the day of installation.
What does it cost to install blinds?
About $1,734 installed new in 2026, from our cost database (a whole house's blinds), and about $1,285 in 2010. The other items here nearest it in price are an electric hot water system (about $1,734, with a 12-year life) and an oven (about $1,914, with a 12-year life).
Other items
General information only, not advice about your circumstances. Speak to a registered tax agent before relying on it.