Division 40 · pool
Pool filter: effective life and depreciation rate
The filter is a separate asset from the pump it sits beside, with the same 10-year life.
- Effective life
- 10 yrs
- DV · PC rate
- 20% · 10%
- Installed new, 2026
- $1,017
The Commissioner's row for pool filtration includes pumps, so the pump beside it takes the same 10-year life, though each is its own asset with its own date. New sand, glass media or a cartridge is generally a repair to the filter, not a new asset; a whole new filter is. Installed new, the filter costs about $1,017, the pump about $721 and a pool chlorinator about $1,288.
Five years of a pool filter bought new
A pool filter costing $1,017, held for each full year, under each method. At $1,017 it is above the $1,000 low-cost threshold, so it is deducted at its own rate. Under diminishing value its written-down value is $814 after one full year, under $1,000, so from year 2 it can go into the low-value pool.
| Year | Diminishing value 20% | Prime cost 10% |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $203 | $102 |
| 2 | $163 | $102 |
| 3 | $130 | $102 |
| 4 | $104 | $102 |
| 5 | $83 | $102 |
| Five years | $683 | $510 |
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 pool filter cost installed, by year
- 2000$626
- 2010$753
- 2020$850
- 2026$1,017
The effective life of a pool filter 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 pool filter?
10 years, as the Commissioner of Taxation determines it for "Filtration assets (including pumps)" under "Swimming pool 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 pool chlorinator and a pool pump.
What is the depreciation rate for a pool filter?
20% a year under diminishing value (200% ÷ 10), taken from what is left of the value: $203 of the $1,017 it costs installed new in the first full year, $83 in the fifth. Or 10% a year under prime cost (100% ÷ 10), taken from the cost: $102 in each of the first five. An item first held before 10 May 2006 takes 150% ÷ 10 under diminishing value.
Can I claim a pool filter 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 pool filter 5 years old in good condition, about $509 of the $1,017 new in 2026, a value whose decline can make a capital gain or loss when it is sold or scrapped. For a pool filter 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 pool filter?
About $1,017 installed new in 2026, from our cost database, and about $753 in 2010. The other items here nearest it in price are a refrigerator (about $1,160, with a 12-year life) and a window or wall air conditioner (about $861, with a 10-year life).
Other items
General information only, not advice about your circumstances. Speak to a registered tax agent before relying on it.