Depreciation

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Declining-balance depreciation of a $50,000 asset with$6,500 salvage value over 20 years.

Depreciation is an estimate of the decrease in the value of an asset, caused by "wear and tear", obsolescence, or impairment. The use of depreciation affects a company's (or an individual's) financial statements, and, in some countries, their taxes.

In economics, depreciation is the decrease in value of the capital stock (physical depreciation). Depreciation is caused mainly by deterioration, or wear and tear of equipment, and obsolescence. If capital stock is [itex]C_0[itex] at the beginning of a period, investment is [itex]I[itex] and depreciation [itex]D[itex], the capital stock at the end of the period, [itex]C_1[itex], is [itex]C_0 + I - D[itex].

 Contents

Accounting

A company needs to report depreciation accurately in its financial statements in order to achieve two main objectives. Firstly, to match its expenses with the income generated by means of those expenses. Secondly, to ensure that the asset values in the balance sheet are not overstated: an asset acquired in Year 1 is unlikely to be worth the same amount in Year 5.

It is important to understand that depreciation is an average or expected view of the decline in value of an asset. For example, an entity may depreciate its equipment by 15% per year. This rate should be reasonable in aggregate (such as when a manufacturing company is looking at all of its machinery), but there is no expectation that each individual item declines in value by the same amount.

Accounting standards bodies have detailed rules on which methods of depreciation are acceptable, and auditors will express a view if they believe the assumptions underlying the estimates do not give a true and fair view.

Recording depreciation

For historical cost purposes, assets are recorded on the balance sheet at their original cost. Depreciation is not taken out of these assets directly. It is instead recorded in a contra asset account: an asset account with a normal credit balance, typically called "accumulated depreciation". Balancing an asset account with its corresponding accumulated depreciation account will result in the net book value. The net book value will never fall below the salvage value, meaning that once an asset is fully depreciated, no further expenses will be taken during its life. Companies have no obligation to dispose of depreciated assets, of course, and many depreciated assets continue to generate income.

Recording a depreciation expense will involve a credit to an accumulated depreciation account. The corresponding debit will involve either an expense account or an asset account which represents a future expense, such as work in process. Depreciation is recorded as an adjusting journal entry.

Methods

There are several methods for calculating depreciation, generally based on either the passage of time or the level of activity (or use) of the asset.

Taxes

When a company spends money for a service or anything else that isn't a tangible asset, this expenditure is usually immediately tax deductible, and the company enjoys an immediate tax benefit.

However, when a company buys some physical asset that will last longer than one year, like a computer, car, or building, the company cannot immediately deduct the cost and enjoy an immediate tax benefit. Instead, the company must depreciate the cost over the useful life of the asset, taking a tax deduction for a part of the cost each year. Eventually the company does get to deduct the full cost of the asset, but this happens over several years; the number of years depends on an estimate of how long it typically takes that type of asset to become effectively useless, and require a replacement. A computer may depreciate completely over five years; a factory building, over 30 years. The maximum allowable useful life estimate under U.S. income tax regulations is 40 years. Other countries have other systems, many of which remove the choice of depreciation rate and method from the company altogether. In these jurisdictions accounting depreciation and tax depreciation are almost always significantly different numbers.

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