Service life of fixed assets from 2021: what has changed

What is depreciation?

Depreciation is the process of periodically transferring the initial cost of a fixed asset or intangible asset to manufacturing, selling, or general expenses, depending on how the asset is used.

There are several methods of depreciation, but legal entities using the simplified tax system should probably choose the simplest one - the linear method of depreciation.

The straight-line method is that over the entire useful life of a fixed asset or intangible asset, it is written off in equal shares. Depreciation is charged monthly, starting from the next month after the property is put into operation, and until the original cost of the fixed asset or intangible asset is fully amortized.

New

To begin with, in order to take into account the property, they find out the period of its useful operation. It is important for both types of accounting – tax and accounting. The main assistant accountant when determining this period:

codes from the All-Russian Classifier of Fixed Assets (OKOF);
government Classification of fixed assets for the purposes of assignment to depreciation groups (hereinafter referred to as the Classification).

Please note: the changes affected both of these documents. So, starting from 2021, the Classification has undergone adjustments. They were introduced by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated July 7, 2016 No. 640. In addition, new OKOF codes will come into effect starting next year: OK 013-94 will be replaced by OK 013-2014.

It must be said that all these regulatory documents are insanely long multi-page tables with types of OS, codes and deadlines. Therefore, you can easily get confused and also waste a lot of time.

But I didn’t forget about Rostandart accountants. He issued order No. 458 dated April 21, 2016, which helps to understand which old OS code corresponds to the new one. And vice versa. Also in the form of tables.

From 2021, property must cost more than 100,000 rubles to be considered fixed assets and depreciated.

Let's find out how updating the codes will affect the work of an accountant.

How can we calculate depreciation?

As you can see from the formula, you will need to determine the original cost and useful life to calculate the monthly depreciation amount. If there are no problems with the amount of the initial cost, then determining the period of use is sometimes a difficult task.

Do accounting in Elba

Accounting with Elba is easy!

Submit reports without accounting knowledge

Elba will prepare accounting reports for the LLC.
The service is simple: you don't need to know the wiring. Tax reports and reports for employees will also be generated automatically. Try 30 days free Gift for new entrepreneurs A year on “Premium” for individual entrepreneurs under 3 months

Initial cost of fixed assets in accounting

If a company receives/purchases fixed assets, the primary task for the accounting specialist is to calculate the cost of the fixed assets at which it will be accepted for accounting.

As follows from paragraph 1 of Art. 257 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the initial cost of an asset is calculated as the sum of all costs that the company incurred in connection with the acquisition of such an asset.

This value in tax accounting can be formed by:

amount paid to the OS seller;
input VAT, if such OS will serve the purposes of the company’s VAT-free activities, as discussed above;
costs of delivering the OS to the purchasing company;
other costs associated with preparing the OS for work (it is important that without such work the company could not use the OS in its activities, otherwise these costs will not form the initial cost of the OS);
customs duties, fees, state duties, etc.;
some other costs that are directly associated with the company’s acquisition of an OS (the list is open).

NOTE! It should be remembered that for tax purposes, the initial cost does not include interest on the loan that the company took out to purchase the operating system. In accounting, the approach is different: interest forms the initial cost of the asset.

To learn about the situation in which property with an initial cost that is less than the limit established for classification as depreciable property may be included in the fixed assets, read the material “How to account for an asset if less than 100 thousand rubles were paid for it and then reconstructed for 1 million? .

Determining the useful life

For an intangible asset, the useful life is determined by the company itself. This is the period during which the intangible asset will be used and thereby generate income.

For fixed assets in accounting, an enterprise can also set the period of use independently, but it would not be amiss to coordinate this period with already developed standards and classifiers.

Therefore, to determine the useful life, we recommend using the classifier of fixed assets by depreciation groups, approved by Government Decree No. 1 of 01.01.2002.

If a fixed asset belongs to several depreciation groups, we recommend choosing a useful life from the range of the groups to which it belongs, based on the expected service life of the fixed asset.

Thus, it will be possible to obtain the monthly depreciation amount.

If it is necessary to determine the amount of depreciation for a period, for example, as of 01/01/2019, then you should first determine the date of commissioning, and then calculate how many monthly depreciation amounts should have been made. Thus, the monthly depreciation amount can be multiplied by the number of months from the date of commissioning.

Depreciation calculation

The main indicators necessary to calculate depreciation of a fixed asset are its cost and the depreciation rate, calculated based on the useful life of the depreciable fixed asset.
Useful life. The useful life of a fixed asset is the period during which it is planned to use the fixed asset in the course of the institution’s activities for the purposes for which it was acquired, created and (or) received (for the planned purposes). The procedure for determining the useful life of a fixed asset is presented in paragraph 44 of Instruction No. 157n . Below we present a diagram for determining such a period.

The useful life is determined based on:

information contained in the legislation of the Russian Federation establishing the useful life of property for the purpose of calculating depreciation. In this case, we mean Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation dated January 1, 2002 No. 1 “On the Classification of fixed assets included in depreciation groups” and Resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers dated October 22, 1990 No. 1072 “On approval of uniform norms of depreciation charges for the complete restoration of fixed assets of the national economy THE USSR" . If information is missing, then based on:

recommendations contained in the manufacturer's documents included with the fixed asset. If information is missing, then based on:

decision of the institution’s commission on the receipt and disposal of assets, taken taking into account:
the expected life of this object in accordance with the expected productivity or capacity	expected physical wear, depending on the operating mode, natural conditions and the influence of an aggressive environment, the repair system	regulatory and other restrictions on the use of this object	warranty period for use of the object	terms of actual operation and previously accrued amount of depreciation

Calculation of depreciation based on book value. As a general rule, depreciation is calculated based on the book value of the fixed asset ( clause 85 of Instruction No. 157n ).