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Practical Income Manual 2022.

Accelerated amortization of new elements of tangible assets and real estate investments and intangible assets

Regulations: Art. 103 LIS

The holders of economic activities, whose net performance is determined by the direct estimation method, in any of its two modalities, in which each and every one of the requirements indicated below are met, may amortize acceleratedly, for the purposes tax, the new elements of the tangible fixed assets and the real estate investments and the intangible fixed assets, in the terms indicated below.

Requirements

a) That the economic activity has the tax consideration of a small company in the year in which the elements referred to in this tax benefit are made available.

b) That these are new elements of tangible assets and real estate investments, as well as elements of intangible assets, assigned to economic activities.

For these purposes, it is understood that an element is new when it is used or put into operating condition for the first time by the taxpayer.

If the elements are ordered under a work execution contract signed in the tax period, it is necessary that they be made available within 12 months following its conclusion.

The investment may also be made in elements of tangible and intangible assets and real estate investments, built or produced by the company itself, provided that the completion of the construction or production takes place in the tax period in which the economic activity has tax consideration. of a small company or in the 12 months following the conclusion of the tax period.

Deductible accelerated amortization

New elements of tangible fixed assets and real estate investments, as well as elements of intangible fixed assets, may apply the percentage resulting from multiplying by 2 the maximum linear coefficient provided for in the officially approved amortization tables . 

Please note in this regard that the table of amortization coefficients applicable in the normal modality of the direct estimation method is included in article 12.1.a) of the LIS . In the simplified form of the aforementioned method, the applicable amortization table is contained in the Order of March 27, 1998 (BOE of March 28).

However, within intangible fixed assets, those whose useful life cannot be estimated reliably, as well as goodwill, may apply the percentage of 150 percent to the amount that is deductible from applying to them the provisions of article 12.2 of the LIS.

Article 12.2 of the LIS establishes that intangible assets whose useful life cannot be estimated reliably, as well as goodwill, will be deductible with the maximum annual limit of one twentieth of their amount (5 percent). 

Please note that with effects for tax periods 2016 and following, all intangible fixed assets are assets with a defined useful life, so all of them, including goodwill, will be amortized over that useful life.

Without prejudice to the foregoing, for the assets to which the transitional regime provided for in the thirteenth transitional provision of the LIS is applicable, that is, for those that, in tax periods beginning prior to January 1, 2015, were applying an amortization coefficient different from the one that corresponds to them by application of the amortization table provided for in article 12.1 of the LIS, the new useful life of the element must be determined based on the maximum linear coefficient provided for in the table established in the LIS, to , once determined, multiply by 2 the coefficient by which it will be amortized during the remaining tax periods until its new useful life is completed, on the net tax value existing at the beginning of the first tax period that begins on January 1 of 2015.

Compatibility

This amortization regime will be compatible with any tax benefit that may arise due to the assets subject to it. Furthermore, this regime is subsidiary to the freedom of amortization with job creation, so it may be applied to the part of investment in new tangible fixed assets that exceeds the maximum limit set for the latter.

Example: Accelerated amortization of new elements of tangible assets and real estate investments and intangible assets

Don AST is the owner of an economic activity dedicated to the manufacture of locksmith and artistic forging articles whose net return is determined by the direct estimation method, normal modality.

In fiscal year 2021, the net amount of the activity's turnover amounted to 2,800,000 euros.

In the month of July 2022, it acquired a new machine for bending and curving sheet metal and bars for its activity, the acquisition price of which, including accessory expenses, amounted to 36,000 euros.

The aforementioned machine was made available to Don AST in the month of November 2022 and came into operation on December 1, 2022.

Determine the deductible accelerated amortization corresponding to said machine during fiscal year 2022.

Solution:

Since the economic activity in fiscal year 2022 is considered a small company and this fiscal year is the year in which the investment is understood to have been made, when the aforementioned machine is made available to the owner, accelerated amortization may be carried out in said fiscal year.

The calculation of said amortization is carried out as follows:

  • Maximum linear amortization coefficient according to tables: 12 per 100

  • Accelerated amortization coefficient: (12 x 2) = 24 percent

  • Accelerated amortization amount: (24% s/36,000) x 1/12 = 720 euros