Website development costs are depreciated over 3 to 5 years in most scenarios, though the tax treatment and accounting practices differ slightly. For Canadian tax purposes, the CRA generally allows websites to be classified as Class 50 assets (computer software and systems software) with a 55% declining balance rate, or sometimes Class 12 (tools under $500) at 100% declining balance if components qualify. This effectively writes off most costs within 3 to 4 years. From a business planning perspective, we recommend using a 3-year depreciation schedule. Website technology, design trends, and user expectations shift rapidly enough that most sites need significant overhauls or rebuilds every 3 to 4 years anyway. A $15,000 website depreciating over 36 months means roughly $5,000 annual expense, which aligns with realistic refresh cycles. The specific rate depends on what you're depreciating. Custom development and design typically fall under software (Class 50). Hosting and domain costs are operational expenses, fully deductible annually, not depreciated. If you bought specific tools or licenses as part of the build, those might depreciate separately based on their class. For larger enterprises or complex web applications, a 5-year schedule sometimes makes sense, especially if the platform is truly foundational infrastructure. But for most small to mid-sized businesses, that's optimistic. We've seen clients try to stretch depreciation to match loan terms or budget cycles, but functionally, your site is losing competitive value faster than a 5-year schedule reflects. One thing we track for our portfolio sites: actual useful life versus accounting life. A site might still function in year 6, but if it's converting poorly or looks dated, the real depreciation happened faster than the books show. When clients ask us about this for their planning, we tell them to depreciate conservatively on paper but budget for meaningful updates or rebuilds every 3 years. That keeps the tax treatment clean while matching real-world digital asset decay.