Division 40 · kitchen
Refrigerator: effective life and depreciation rate
Only a refrigerator supplied with the tenancy is the landlord's asset; a tenant's own is not in the schedule.
- Effective life
- 12 yrs
- DV · PC rate
- 16.67% · 8.33%
- Installed new, 2026
- $1,160
The same holds in the laundry: a washing machine is in the schedule only when it is supplied with the tenancy, as plant with an 8-year life.
Five years of a refrigerator bought new
A refrigerator costing $1,160, held for each full year, under each method. At $1,160 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 $967 after one full year, under $1,000, so from year 2 it can go into the low-value pool.
| Year | Diminishing value 16.67% | Prime cost 8.33% |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $193 | $97 |
| 2 | $161 | $97 |
| 3 | $134 | $97 |
| 4 | $112 | $97 |
| 5 | $93 | $97 |
| Five years | $693 | $485 |
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 refrigerator cost installed, by year
- 2000$714
- 2010$859
- 2020$970
- 2026$1,160
The effective life of a refrigerator fitted new in a property built in 2014 ends in 2026, while the building's own capital works deduction runs to the 2053–54 income year: see depreciation on a property built in 2014.
Price is for one item, supplied and installed.
Common questions
What is the effective life of a refrigerator?
12 years, as the Commissioner of Taxation determines it for "Refrigerators" under "Kitchen 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). Five of the other 36 items here share it, among them a cooktop and a rangehood.
What is the depreciation rate for a refrigerator?
16.67% a year under diminishing value (200% ÷ 12), taken from what is left of the value: $193 of the $1,160 it costs installed new in the first full year, $93 in the fifth. Or 8.33% a year under prime cost (100% ÷ 12), taken from the cost: $97 in each of the first five. An item first held before 10 May 2006 takes 150% ÷ 12 under diminishing value.
Can I claim a refrigerator 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 refrigerator 6 years old in good condition, about $580 of the $1,160 new in 2026, a value whose decline can make a capital gain or loss when it is sold or scrapped. For a refrigerator 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 refrigerator?
About $1,160 installed new in 2026, from our cost database, and about $859 in 2010. The other items here nearest it in price are a dishwasher (about $1,276, with an 8-year life) and a pool chlorinator (about $1,288, 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.