Division 40 · laundry
Washing machine: effective life and depreciation rate
A washing machine supplied with the tenancy is plant with an 8-year life; a clothes dryer's is 7.
- Effective life
- 8 yrs
- DV · PC rate
- 25% · 12.5%
- Installed new, 2026
- $490
The Commissioner's table has one row for washing machines, so a front loader and a top loader share its life. Beside it, a clothes dryer is a separate asset with a 7-year life, about $670 installed new to this machine's $490. The laundry tub, its taps and the waste pipe are part of the building: capital works, not plant.
Five years of a washing machine bought new
A washing machine costing $490, held for each full year, under each method. At $490 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, $429 over the five years against $375 at its own rate under diminishing value.
| Year | Diminishing value 25% | Prime cost 12.5% | Low-value pool |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $123 | $61 | $92 |
| 2 | $92 | $61 | $149 |
| 3 | $69 | $61 | $93 |
| 4 | $52 | $61 | $59 |
| 5 | $39 | $61 | $36 |
| Five years | $375 | $305 | $429 |
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 washing machine cost installed, by year
- 2000$302
- 2010$363
- 2020$410
- 2026$490
The effective life of a washing machine fitted new in a property built in 2018 ends in 2026, while the building's own capital works deduction runs to the 2057–58 income year: see depreciation on a property built in 2018.
Price is for one item, supplied and installed.
Common questions
What is the effective life of a washing machine?
8 years, as the Commissioner of Taxation determines it for "Washing machines" 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). Four of the other 36 items here share it, among them a microwave and a television.
What is the depreciation rate for a washing machine?
25% a year under diminishing value (200% ÷ 8), taken from what is left of the value: $123 of the $490 it costs installed new in the first full year, $39 in the fifth. Or 12.5% a year under prime cost (100% ÷ 8), taken from the cost: $61 in each of the first five. An item first held before 10 May 2006 takes 150% ÷ 8 under diminishing value.
Can I claim a washing machine 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 washing machine 4 years old in good condition, about $245 of the $490 new in 2026, a value whose decline can make a capital gain or loss when it is sold or scrapped. For a washing machine 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 washing machine?
About $490 installed new in 2026, from our cost database, and about $363 in 2010. The other items here nearest it in price are a heated towel rail (about $454, with a 10-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.