Calculate straight-line depreciation with salvage value, useful life, and annual/monthly expense schedule with chart.
Enter what an asset cost, what it will be worth when you stop using it, and how many years it will last, and this tool splits the difference into equal annual slices of depreciation, then shows the book value falling in a straight line from cost to salvage. The surprise for most people is that the yearly expense is identical by design: a constant expense and a straight book-value line are the point of the method, not a rounding quirk. Also worth knowing: depreciation is an accounting allocation, not cash moving out of the business.
A concrete input and expected output from the current implementation.
Input
Cost $12,000, salvage value $2,000, useful life 5 years
Expected output
Annual depreciation: $2,000 (monthly: $166.67). Schedule of ending book values: Year 1 $10,000, Year 2 $8,000, Year 3 $6,000, Year 4 $4,000, Year 5 $2,000, with accumulated depreciation reaching the full $10,000 depreciable base.
(12,000 - 2,000) / 5 = 2,000 per year, and 2,000 / 12 = 166.67 per month. Subtracting the same 2,000 each year lands the book value exactly on the $2,000 salvage value at the end of year 5.
Annual depreciation = (cost - salvage value) / useful life. The tool subtracts salvage first, so the depreciable base - the portion of cost actually written off - is what gets divided by the life in years. That same amount is applied to every period, and the monthly view divides it by 12. Because the figure never varies from one year to the next, the expense line is flat by construction.
Each row walks the asset from opening book value toward salvage: depreciation expense, accumulated depreciation, and ending book value (last year's ending value minus this year's expense). The chart plots ending book value over time as a straight descending line from cost to salvage - the source of the method's name. The schedule ends once accumulated depreciation equals the depreciable base, so book value never dips below salvage.
Yes - enter 0 as the salvage value and the full purchase price becomes the depreciable base, written off evenly over the life. That is legitimate when you genuinely expect no resale value at the end of the asset's life, and the tool will carry book value to zero in the final year. Just be sure the zero-salvage estimate is defensible, because it raises the annual expense.
Usually not, in the US. The regular tax deduction for most business property follows MACRS, an accelerated system; straight-line appears on tax returns mainly through the Alternative Depreciation System (ADS). The tool's numbers match financial-statement depreciation under GAAP or IFRS. For US tax treatment, work from IRS Publication 946 before relying on any schedule.
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