Aswath Damodaran 199
The Depreciation Tax Benefit
! While depreciation reduces taxable income and taxes, it does not reduce the
cash flows.
! The benefit of depreciation is therefore the tax benefit. In general, the tax
benefit from depreciation can be written as:
Tax Benefit = Depreciation * Tax Rate
! For example, in year 2 , the tax benefit from depreciation to Disney from this
project can be written as:
Tax Benefit in year 2 = $ 537 million (. 373 ) = $ 200 million
Proposition 1 : The tax benefit from depreciation and other non-cash charges is
greater, the higher your tax rate.
Proposition 2 : Non-cash charges that are not tax deductible (such as amortization
of goodwill) and thus provide no tax benefits have no effect on cash flows.
If a firm pays no taxes (it is a tax-exempt entity, for instance), there is no benefit
to depreciation.
In the 1970s, when tax rates for wealthy individuals were much higher than tax
rates for corporations, the former (who get much higher tax benefits from
depreciation) would buy expensive assets (such as airplanes) and lease them
back to the latter.
Non-cash charges that are not tax deductible do not create a benefit from a cash
flow standpoint. They are subtracted out from after-tax income and then added
back. Thus, the debate in acquisitions about whether to use purchase accounting
(which leads to goodwill, the amortization of which reduces after-tax earnings in
future periods) or pooling (which does not affect earnings) has no implications
for cash flows.
