Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System

Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS)

A 1986 act that set out rules for the depreciation of qualifying assets, allowing for greater acceleration over longer periods of time.

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Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS)

A depreciation system in which assets are classified according to a prescribed life or recovery period that bears only a rough relationship to their expected economic lives. MACRS represents a 1986 change to the Accelerated Cost Recovery System that was instituted in 1981. The depreciation rates in MACRS are derived from the double-declining-balance method of depreciation.

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Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System

An accounting technique used in the United States to tax a tangible asset based upon its estimated depreciation. The estimated depreciation bears only a rough relationship to an asset's actual life, and is designed to decrease the taxation in the early years of an asset's ownership. The Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System replaced the Accelerated Cost Recovery System in 1986, and increased the deductions an owner is allowed to take in the early years of ownership. See also: Absolute Physical Life.

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Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS)

MACRS is the depreciation system used for most property placed in service after December 31, 1986. But ACRS (see Accelerated Cost Recovery System) must be used for certain property acquired from a related party if that property was used by the related party before 1987.