Division 40 · laundry
Clothes dryer: effective life and depreciation rate
A wall-mounted dryer is still plant: it is screwed to a bracket, not built into the structure.
- Effective life
- 7 yrs
- DV · PC rate
- 28.57% · 14.29%
- Installed new, 2026
- $670
Beside it in most laundries, a washing machine is a separate asset, with an 8-year life, one year longer than the dryer's, at about $490 installed new. Each is the landlord's plant only when it is supplied with the tenancy.
Five years of a clothes dryer bought new
A clothes dryer costing $670, held for each full year, under each method. At $670 it costs less than $1,000, so it can go into the low-value pool from the start: 18.75% of its cost in the first year, then 37.5% of what is left each year after, $588 over the five years against $546 at its own rate under diminishing value.
| Year | Diminishing value 28.57% | Prime cost 14.29% | Low-value pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $191 | $96 | $126 |
| 2 | $137 | $96 | $204 |
| 3 | $98 | $96 | $128 |
| 4 | $70 | $96 | $80 |
| 5 | $50 | $96 | $50 |
| Five years | $546 | $480 | $588 |
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 a clothes dryer cost installed, by year
- 2000$412
- 2010$496
- 2020$560
- 2026$670
The effective life of a clothes dryer fitted new in a property built in 2019 ends in 2026, while the building's own capital works deduction runs to the 2058–59 income year: see depreciation on a property built in 2019.
Price is for one item, supplied and installed.
Common questions
What is the effective life of a clothes dryer?
7 years, as the Commissioner of Taxation determines it for "Clothes dryers" under "Laundry assets" 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). No other item here has the same life; the nearest are a smoke alarm at 6 years and a washing machine at 8 years.
What is the depreciation rate for a clothes dryer?
28.57% a year under diminishing value (200% ÷ 7), taken from what is left of the value: $191 of the $670 it costs installed new in the first full year, $50 in the fifth. Or 14.29% a year under prime cost (100% ÷ 7), taken from the cost: $96 in each of the first five. An item first held before 10 May 2006 takes 150% ÷ 7 under diminishing value.
Can I claim a clothes dryer 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 a clothes dryer 4 years old in good condition, about $287 of the $670 new in 2026, a value whose decline can make a capital gain or loss when it is sold or scrapped. For a clothes dryer 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 a clothes dryer?
About $670 installed new in 2026, from our cost database, and about $496 in 2010. The other items here nearest it in price are a garage door motor (about $643, with a 10-year life) and a television (about $706, with an 8-year life).
Other items
General information only, not advice about your circumstances. Speak to a registered tax agent before relying on it.