मूल्यह्रास कटौती

When a company buys assets that last more than one year, it cannot deduct the price all at once; instead the cost is spread across the working life of the asset through depreciation. The Income Tax Act prescribes the rates and the classes into which assets fall, from buildings at one speed to vehicles and plant at others, and the deduction follows fixed percentages of the written down value. Plant and machinery generally deserves fine attention because it carries a higher rate while buildings carry a lower one. Accelerated allowances are available for specific qualifying investments, meaning a capital-heavy manufacturer can shelter meaningfully more profit in the early years of a big installation than a property company holding buildings. The written down value system is simple but unforgiving with records. Each asset, purchase date, cost and claimed allowance must be tracked so that the figure carried into the next year is provable. Companies that tear down an old register and rebuild it at year end invite adjustment; those that maintain it monthly let depreciation work as the silent expense it was designed to be, recovering the real cost of capital reliably year after year.