Division 40 · bathrooms
Heated towel rail: effective life and depreciation rate
A plug-in or hard-wired heated rail is plant; an unheated rail screwed to the wall is a bathroom fitting and capital works.
- Effective life
- 10 yrs
- DV · PC rate
- 20% · 10%
- Installed new, 2026
- $454
In the same bathroom, an exhaust fan is plant too, on the same 10-year life, at about $128 installed new to the rail's $454; the basin, toilet, shower and tiles are part of the building, as is the wiring to a hard-wired rail. Like a gas space heater, which is plant where a wood heater set into the building is not, a heated rail is plant though it is fixed to the wall.
Five years of a heated towel rail bought new
A heated towel rail costing $454, held for each full year, under each method. At $454 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, $398 over the five years against $305 at its own rate under diminishing value.
| Year | Diminishing value 20% | Prime cost 10% | Low-value pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $91 | $45 | $85 |
| 2 | $73 | $45 | $138 |
| 3 | $58 | $45 | $87 |
| 4 | $46 | $45 | $54 |
| 5 | $37 | $45 | $34 |
| Five years | $305 | $225 | $398 |
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 heated towel rail cost installed, by year
- 2000$280
- 2010$337
- 2020$380
- 2026$454
The effective life of a heated towel rail 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 one item, supplied and installed.
Common questions
What is the effective life of a heated towel rail?
10 years, as the Commissioner of Taxation determines it for "Heated towel rails, electric" under "Bathroom 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). Ten of the other 36 items here share it, among them a video intercom and a garage door motor.
What is the depreciation rate for a heated towel rail?
20% a year under diminishing value (200% ÷ 10), taken from what is left of the value: $91 of the $454 it costs installed new in the first full year, $37 in the fifth. Or 10% a year under prime cost (100% ÷ 10), taken from the cost: $45 in each of the first five. An item first held before 10 May 2006 takes 150% ÷ 10 under diminishing value.
Can I claim a heated towel rail 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 heated towel rail 5 years old in good condition, about $227 of the $454 new in 2026, a value whose decline can make a capital gain or loss when it is sold or scrapped. For a heated towel rail 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 heated towel rail?
About $454 installed new in 2026, from our cost database, and about $337 in 2010. The other items here nearest it in price are a washing machine (about $490, with an 8-year life) and a microwave (about $586, 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.