How do you determine the useful life of a machine?
Ava Robinson
Published Feb 16, 2026
How to determine the useful life of an asset. Most commonly, the depreciation of assets is calculated by dividing the cost of the asset by the estimated number of years in its life.
How many years do you depreciate machinery?
Computers, office equipment, vehicles, and appliances: For five years. Office furniture: For seven years. Residential rental properties: For 27.5 years. Commercial buildings and nonresidential property: For 39 years.
How is useful life depreciation calculated?
Straight-Line Method
- Subtract the asset’s salvage value from its cost to determine the amount that can be depreciated.
- Divide this amount by the number of years in the asset’s useful lifespan.
- Divide by 12 to tell you the monthly depreciation for the asset.
What is the useful life of computer equipment?
five years
For example, the average useful life of computer equipment is five years.
What is the useful life of a camera?
If you know a shutter should fire 150,000 times and cameras in your company shoot 500 photos a week, then the average camera will last about five and a half years.
What is the difference between economic life and useful life?
Useful life is how long the tool will do what it is intended to do, life measured in time or in number of uses. For instance, how long a dump truck will haul and dump dirt. Economic life is how long the tool or equipment will do what it is intended to do at a cost that is comparable to alternatives.
Do cameras lose value?
Camera’s are like any other electronic device, in that they depreciate, and usually very fast. As the manufacturers keep coming out with newer and better models, the value of LAST YEARS models reduces quickly and you start to see price drops. Just like computers.
When estimated useful life of an asset is revised?
Usually a change in the estimated useful life of an asset or a change in the estimated salvage value. The change usually causes a change in the depreciation expense for the current year and subsequent years. The depreciation expense of previous years is not changed.
