Australia no longer sets restaurant equipment depreciation in a tax ruling: anything under A$20,000 is usually written off in full in year one, and the effective lives above that sit in the Effective Life Determination 2025.
Skai Solutions answers the phone for Australian and New Zealand venues, which means we read a lot of operator cost models, and the equipment line is where the most confident wrong numbers live. Every figure below is from the Tax Office, the Federal Register of Legislation or Inland Revenue, read on 25 October 2026, and dated so you can check it. It is not tax advice.
No, and that is the first thing to know, because almost every article ranking for this question still says it does. The Tax Office's own effective life page states that the practice of publishing effective lives in tables attached to a ruling ended with the withdrawal of TR 2022/1. The rates now sit in the Income Tax Assessment (Effective Life of Depreciating Assets) Determination 2025, registered on the Federal Register of Legislation on 15 September 2025 and in force. The Tax Office page explaining the change was last updated on 17 November 2025.
So if your accountant quotes you a ruling number, or a blog hands you a table headed with one, the number may still be right but the source is retired. The determination is the current law and it sunsets on 1 October 2035, which in practice means another one lands before then.
Most single items in a venue never get depreciated, because they are small enough to deduct in one go. For a business with aggregated turnover under A$10 million using the simplified depreciation rules, the instant asset write-off limit is A$20,000 for an asset first used or installed ready for use on or after 1 July 2023. It applies per asset, so a A$6,000 fryer, a A$9,000 dishwasher and a A$15,000 coffee machine bought in the same year are three separate deductions, and it covers second-hand gear as well as new.
At or above the limit the asset goes into the small business pool instead, which deducts 15 per cent in the year you allocate it and 30 per cent each year after. The test is the total cost of the asset, not the business-use share.
Our own arithmetic on those two published rates, and it is the sharpest number on this page: an asset costing A$19,999 gives you a A$19,999 deduction this year. One costing A$20,000 gives you A$3,000. One dollar of purchase price defers A$16,999 of deduction. If a supplier quotes you A$20,400 for a cool room, the difference between negotiating to A$19,999 and not bothering is not A$401, it is most of a year's deduction. The same trap runs through cool room pricing and kitchen equipment budgets generally.
New Zealand is the easier country to answer precisely, because Inland Revenue publishes rates by asset class and by industry, and one of those industries is "Hotels, motels, restaurants, cafes, taverns and takeaway bars". General determination DEP89, issued 18 August 2014 and applying from the 2014 income year, sets these:
| Asset class | Estimated useful life | Diminishing value rate | Straight line rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bench-top pizza oven (commercial) | 6.66 years | 30% | 21% |
| Bench-top pizza oven held on long-term loan or hire | 5 years | 40% | 30% |
| Microwave oven (commercial) | 8 years | 25% | 17.5% |
Read the middle row again. It is the same oven. Inland Revenue gives it a shorter life and a faster rate when it is held on long-term loan or hire, which the determination describes as a period greater than one month. The machine does not wear out faster. The tax treatment of how you hold it is simply different, and that is a live input into the lease or buy decision that nobody puts in the comparison.
Inland Revenue's own worked example happens to be a piece of hospitality equipment, which saves translating one. An espresso machine costing NZ$10,000 at a 30 per cent diminishing value rate, used entirely for business, claims like this.
| Year | Opening value | Claim | Closing value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NZ$10,000 | NZ$3,000 | NZ$7,000 |
| 2 | NZ$7,000 | NZ$2,100 | NZ$4,900 |
| 3 | NZ$4,900 | NZ$1,470 | NZ$3,430 |
| 4 | NZ$3,430 | NZ$1,029 | NZ$2,401 |
Two adjustments catch people out. If you bought the machine part way through the year you multiply by the months you used it, counting a part month as a whole month, so eleven months of that first year is NZ$3,000 times 11 divided by 12, or NZ$2,750. If you also use the asset privately you then multiply by the business-use percentage. Those are Inland Revenue's own figures, from a page last updated 13 July 2026.
The straight line alternative spreads the same cost evenly instead, which is the quieter choice if you are watching a break-even number rather than chasing a deduction early.
This is the one place where the two countries point in opposite directions, and a group running venues on both sides of the Tasman should not assume the buying rule travels.
Australia's instant asset write-off treats new and second-hand assets the same up to A$20,000, so tax is neutral between a new combi oven and a good used one. New Zealand's Investment Boost gives a 20 per cent deduction on the cost of new assets, or assets new to New Zealand, bought or finished being constructed on or after 22 May 2025, with normal depreciation then claimed on the remaining 80 per cent. Imported second-hand gear counts because it is new to New Zealand. A machine already used in New Zealand does not. Inland Revenue states there is no cap on the value. The low-value asset threshold is NZ$1,000, below which the full cost is deducted in the year you buy it, and the 20 per cent boost is excluded when testing an asset against that threshold because the test is on original cost.
So in Australia the used oven is tax-neutral. In New Zealand buying used costs you the 20 per cent. None of this is tax advice and the arithmetic of your own year is a conversation with your accountant, but it is worth knowing which way the thumb is on the scale before you shop.
Equipment is the part of a venue's cost base that gets modelled carefully, because an invoice arrives and somebody has to code it. The phone is the part that never gets modelled at all, because a call that does not get answered leaves no invoice behind. A venue will spend an hour arguing about the depreciation rate on a A$12,000 oven and will not spend five minutes on the twenty bookings a month that went to voicemail during service.
Skai Solutions answers that phone, takes the booking, and logs the call so the number stops being invisible. If you want to see what your own missed calls look like before you decide anything, that is what a demo is for. The wider picture sits in our overhead cost breakdown and in what a venue is worth, where depreciated assets and lost revenue end up in the same valuation.
What is the depreciation rate for restaurant equipment in Australia?
There is no single rate. Australia sets an effective life per asset class and you then choose prime cost or diminishing value. Those effective lives are no longer published in a tax ruling: TR 2022/1 was withdrawn and the rates now sit in the Income Tax Assessment (Effective Life of Depreciating Assets) Determination 2025, registered 15 September 2025. Most venue purchases never reach that point anyway, because an asset under A$20,000 can usually be written off in full.
How long does the ATO say restaurant equipment lasts?
It depends on the asset, and the figure comes from the current effective life determination rather than from a ruling. The Tax Office also allows you to work out your own effective life rather than use the Commissioner's figure, which matters for a venue that runs equipment harder than an office does.
Can I write off restaurant equipment instead of depreciating it?
If your aggregated turnover is under A$10 million and you use the simplified depreciation rules, yes, for assets costing less than A$20,000 first used or installed ready for use on or after 1 July 2023. It applies per asset and covers new and second-hand equipment. At A$20,000 or more the asset goes to the small business pool at 15 per cent in the allocation year and 30 per cent after that.
What is the depreciation rate for a commercial oven in New Zealand?
For a commercial bench-top pizza oven, Inland Revenue determination DEP89 sets an estimated useful life of 6.66 years, a diminishing value rate of 30 per cent and a straight line rate of 21 per cent. A commercial microwave oven is 8 years, 25 per cent and 17.5 per cent. Both sit in the hotels, motels, restaurants, cafes, taverns and takeaway bars category.
Does it matter whether I own or hire the equipment?
In New Zealand it changes the rate. DEP89 gives a bench-top pizza oven held on long-term loan or hire an estimated useful life of 5 years and a 40 per cent diminishing value rate, against 6.66 years and 30 per cent for the same oven owned outright. The determination treats a period greater than one month as long term.
Is buying second-hand equipment worse for tax?
In Australia, no. The instant asset write-off covers new and second-hand assets equally up to A$20,000. In New Zealand it is worse: Investment Boost gives 20 per cent of cost as a deduction only on new assets or assets new to New Zealand, so gear already used in New Zealand misses out.
Is this tax advice?
No. The figures here come from the Tax Office, the Federal Register of Legislation and Inland Revenue and are dated so you can check them, but your own position depends on your turnover, your method and your year. Take it to your accountant.