Aircraft depreciation: how fast a plane loses value, and what the tax rules allow
October 29, 2026 · Chris van Eijk
"Aircraft depreciation" means two different things, and owners often mix them up. The first is the loss of market value: what the aircraft is worth less every year, which an owner only feels when selling. The second is tax depreciation: how much of the purchase price a business may deduct from its profit each year, under rules that have nothing to do with what the aircraft will fetch. This guide covers both — the loss of value our cost calculator assumes for a piston single, a turboprop and a jet, and the tax rules of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands, quoted from each tax authority's own publication, read on 29 October 2026.
Short answer: our cost calculator assumes a new piston aircraft loses 10% of its value in the first year and 6% of what is left each year up to 10 years old, so it is worth about 52% of its price after 10 years and 28% after 30; a jet loses faster (about 42% left after 10 years) and a turboprop slower (58%). For tax, the IRS puts a business aircraft that is not used in commercial passenger or freight service in asset class 00.21, and allows its 5-year recovery only if the aircraft is used more than 50% for business (and passes a second, 25% test); the UK lets most businesses deduct the full cost through the £1 million annual investment allowance, and otherwise 14% a year from April 2026; Germany's general table gives an aeroplane under 20 tonnes 21 years (14 for aviation businesses and flight schools), with a faster declining-balance option for assets bought from July 2025 to the end of 2027; and the Netherlands caps depreciation at 20% of the purchase cost a year.
How fast an aircraft loses value
How much of the purchase price is left
| After | Piston aircraft | Turboprops | Jets |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 90% | 92% | 88% |
| 5 years | 70% | 75% | 63% |
| 10 years | 52% | 58% | 42% |
| 20 years | 34% | 39% | 22% |
| 30 years | 28% | 28% | 15% |
We know of no free public record of what used aircraft sell for: price guides such as Vref and Aircraft Bluebook are paid services. Our aircraft ownership cost calculator therefore works with a planning assumption, and this guide uses the same one so the two never disagree.
The assumption takes a share of what the aircraft is still worth at the start of each year, not of the original price. A new piston aircraft loses 10% in its first year, then 6% a year up to 10 years old, 4% a year up to 20, and 2% a year after that. Turboprops lose 8% in the first year and then 5%, 4% and 3%; jets lose 12% and then 8%, 6% and 4%. Because each year takes a share of a smaller value, the amount shrinks quickly: on a new piston aircraft bought for $100,000 it is $10,000 in the first year, $5,400 in the second, $3,292 in the tenth and $572 in the thirtieth.
An old aircraft loses little, for two reasons. Its price follows engine time, avionics and damage history more than its age, which is why the assumption almost stops at 2% a year after 20 years. And it has already lost most of what it will lose: in the assumption, a piston aircraft still has 28% of its new price after 30 years, and loses 2% of that a year. Our guide to what it costs to own a plane puts that depreciation next to the hangar, insurance, maintenance and fuel; the cheapest planes to own ranks 26 types before depreciation, because that follows what you paid.
Depreciation is not money that leaves your account each year. You lose it when you sell, and only if the market agrees with the estimate. Our calculator shows it on a line of its own, apart from the costs you pay in cash.
Tax depreciation: what a business may write off
Tax depreciation of a light aircraft used in a business
United States
5 years (GDS)
Asset class 00.21: class life 6 years, GDS 5 years, ADS 6. Accelerated only with more than 50% (and 25%) qualified business use; otherwise straight line over 6 years. 100% special allowance for qualifying property acquired and placed in service after 19 January 2025, if the business-use tests are met.
United Kingdom
AIA, or 14%
Capital allowances: in most cases the full cost through the annual investment allowance (up to £1 million a year); otherwise the main pool at 14% a year from April 2026 (18% before), or the special rate pool at 6% for long-life items (useful life of 25 years or more, above £100,000 a year).
Germany
21 or 14 years
BMF AfA table for general assets, row 4.3.1: aeroplanes under 20 t, 21 years. Aviation businesses and flight schools use their own industry table: 14 years (7% a year). Bought 1 July 2025 – 31 December 2027: declining balance allowed, up to 3× the straight-line rate, max. 30% (§ 7(2) EStG).
Netherlands
max. 20% a year
No set period for aircraft: the business estimates the useful life (technical, or economic if shorter) and the residual value, and may write off at most 20% of the purchase cost a year.
Tax depreciation applies when an aircraft is an asset of a business: a company that flies it for work, a flight school, a charter operator, or an owner who leases it to one. It spreads the purchase price over a period the tax rules set — or, under some rules, lets it be deducted at once — whatever the aircraft is really worth. A private owner who flies only for pleasure generally has no business profit to deduct it from. What follows is a summary of each country's published rule, not tax advice: the business use of the aircraft, the owner's tax position and the year of purchase all change the outcome, and an adviser should check it for your case.
United States: five years, if business use is above 50%
IRS Publication 946 (2025) puts the aircraft in asset class 00.21, "Airplanes (airframes and engines), except those used in commercial or contract carrying of passengers or freight, and all helicopters (airframes and engines)", with a class life of 6 years, a recovery period of 5 years under the general depreciation system (GDS) of MACRS and 6 years under the alternative depreciation system (ADS). An aircraft used in commercial or contract carrying of passengers or freight falls in class 45.0 (air transport) instead: 7 years under GDS, 12 under ADS.
A business aircraft is listed property, so it needs enough business use: "To claim accelerated depreciation on business aircraft, you must meet the 50% test under section 280F(b) of the Internal Revenue Code and the 25% test under section 280F(d)(6)(C)(ii) of the Internal Revenue Code." Failing either test rules out accelerated depreciation, including the special allowance; and if business use is 50% or less, "Any depreciation deduction under MACRS for property not used predominantly for qualified business use during any year must be figured using the straight line method over the ADS recovery period." The IRS judges business use flight by flight and passenger by passenger.
The 2025 tax law (P.L. 119-21) changed the first year. Publication 946 says it "reinstated the 100% special depreciation allowance for certain qualified property acquired and placed in service after January 19, 2025 (including long production period property and certain aircraft)". The separate section 179 deduction is capped at $2,500,000 for tax years beginning in 2025 and, under Revenue Procedure 2025-32, $2,560,000 for 2026. An aircraft that is not used predominantly for business in the year it is placed in service qualifies for neither. Leasing changes it too: "Generally, you cannot claim a section 179 deduction based on the cost of property you lease to someone else. This rule does not apply to corporations." So an individual or partnership that leases the aircraft to a flight school generally cannot take it, and leasing to a 5% owner or a related person counts as business use only if at least 25% of the aircraft's total use that year is qualified business use.
United Kingdom: usually the full cost, otherwise 14% a year
In the UK a business claims capital allowances on "items that you keep to use in your business", which gov.uk calls plant and machinery. "In most cases", gov.uk adds, a business deducts the full cost from its profits before tax through the annual investment allowance (AIA); "The AIA amount is £1 million". It does not cover "items you owned for another reason before you started using them in your business" — an aircraft you already flew privately, for example. What the AIA does not cover goes into a pool with a writing down allowance, and the main pool now has a rate of 14%: gov.uk lists the "main pool with a rate of 14% from April 2026, and 18% before", and a "special rate pool with a rate of 6%". The special rate covers, among other things, long-life items — "These are items with a useful life of at least 25 years from when they were new" — once a business buys more than £100,000 of them in an accounting period. For jets bought from 1 July 2014, HMRC's manual ties it to the owner's own accounts: "If a company's accounting estimate of the useful economic life of the fuselage is at least 25 years then you should treat the jet aircraft as a long life asset."
Germany: 21 years, or 14 for aviation businesses
The Federal Ministry of Finance publishes useful lives in AfA tables, which serve as a guide ("Anhaltspunkt"). The table for general assets gives row 4.3.1, "Flugzeuge unter 20 t höchstzulässigem Fluggewicht" (aeroplanes under 20 tonnes maximum take-off mass), 21 years. Aviation businesses use their own industry table, because where an asset is in both, "gilt für die branchenzugehörigen Steuerpflichtigen der Wert der Branchentabelle" — the industry table applies to businesses in that industry. The table for aviation companies and airports, which also covers flight schools, gives aeroplanes under 20 tonnes 14 years, or 7% a year. For movable assets bought between 1 July 2025 and 31 December 2027, section 7(2) of the Income Tax Act (EStG) also allows declining-balance depreciation: a fixed percentage of the remaining book value that "darf höchstens das Dreifache des bei der Absetzung für Abnutzung in gleichen Jahresbeträgen in Betracht kommenden Prozentsatzes betragen und 30 Prozent nicht übersteigen" — at most three times the straight-line rate and never more than 30%. On a 21-year life that is up to about 14% of the book value a year, on 14 years up to about 21%.
Netherlands: at most 20% a year
The Dutch tax office sets no period for aircraft. The business estimates the aircraft's useful life — in principle its technical life, or its economic life if that is shorter — and its residual value. One of the methods the Belastingdienst gives writes off the difference in equal parts: "afschrijving per jaar = (aanschafkosten - restwaarde) : vermoedelijke gebruiksduur". There is one cap: "De afschrijving is per jaar maximaal 20% van de aanschafkosten van het bedrijfsmiddel." — at most 20% of the purchase cost a year.
Depreciation in a partnership
In a shared aircraft the loss of value is shared too, but many groups do not charge it month by month. It usually shows when an owner leaves and sells the share at a price that follows what the aircraft is worth then, not what was paid for it — on terms the agreement sets. AOPA's sample co-ownership agreement says the clause on selling a share "may be one of the most important considerations in drafting your agreement": how a share is valued, whether the other owners may buy it first, and whether it may be sold to an outsider. The aircraft partnership agreement guide goes through those clauses, and our calculator shows each owner's part of the depreciation next to the costs the group pays in cash.
Pilot-Next keeps those cash costs straight: each owner's fixed share is billed as a recurring fee, and each settled flight at the group's hourly rate. It does not value the aircraft or keep the tax books; that stays with the owners and their adviser.