Depreciation schedule

A depreciation schedule is a one-off report prepared by a qualified quantity surveyor (not your accountant - the ATO only accepts QS reports for construction cost estimates) listing every Division 40 plant-and-equipment asset and the Division 43 capital works deductions available for your property. It's typically 30-50 pages, covers the full 40-year deduction life of the building, and costs $600-800 plus GST. The cost itself is deductible. For older or low-value properties the schedule sometimes doesn't pay for itself; for anything post-2000 it almost always does, often unlocking $5,000-$15,000 of first-year deductions you'd otherwise miss.