CHAPTER 8
ACCOUNTING FOR LONG-TERM ASSETS
Related Assignment Materials
Student Learning Objectives Questions
Quick
Studies* Exercises* Problems*
Beyond the
Numbers
Conceptual objectives:
C1. Explain the cost principle for
computing the cost of plant
asset.
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8-1, 8-2,
8-3, 8-21
8-1, 8-3,
8-4, 8-6
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C2. Explain depreciation for partial
years and changes in estimates
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8-13, 8-25
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C3. Distinguish between revenue
and capital expenditures, and
account for them.
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Analytical objectives:
A1. Compute total asset turnover
and apply it to analyze a
company’s use of assets.
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8-4, 8-7,
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Procedural objectives:
P1 Compute and record depreciation
using straight-line, units-of-
production, and declining-
balance methods.
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8-4, 8-5,
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8-10, 8-18,
8-25
8-1, 8-2,
8-3, 8-5,
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P2. Account for asset disposal
through discarding, or selling,
an asset.
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8-24, 8-25
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P3. Account for natural resource
assets and their depletion.
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P4. Account for intangible assets. 10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15
8-11, 8-12 8-19, 8-20 8-8 8-5, 8-8
P5A Account for asset exchanges 6 8-14 8-23, 8-24
*See additional information on next page that pertains to these quick studies, exercises and problems.
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Additional Information on Related Assignment Material
The Serial Problem for Success Systems continues in this chapter. Problems 8-1A and 8-3A can be
completed using Excel. Problems 8-1A, 8-2A and 8-8A can be completed with QuickBooks. Problems 8-
1A and 8-8A can be completed with Sage 50 Software.
Connect (Available on the instructor’s course-specific website) repeats all numerical Quick Studies, all
Exercises and Problems Set A. Connect provides new numbers each time the Quick Study, Exercise or
Problem is worked. It allows instructors to monitor, promote, and assess student learning. It can be used
in practice, homework, or exam mode
Synopsis of Chapter Revisions
New Glarus Brewing Co.: NEW opener with new entrepreneurial assignment
Reorder presentation of plant assets
New learning notes on book value and depreciation
Updated asset turnover analysis using Boston Beet and Molson Coors
New goodwill example using Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp
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Chapter Outline Notes
I. Plant Assets—Tangible assets used in a company’s operations that
have a useful life of more than one accounting period. Consistent with
cost principle, recorded at cost. Cost includes all normal and
reasonable expenditures necessary to get the asset in place and ready
for its intended use. Must be normal, reasonable and necessary for its
intended use.
A. Machinery and Equipment
Costs include all normal and necessary expenditures to purchase
them and prepare them for their intended use (purchase price,
taxes, transportation charges, insurance while in transit, and the
installing, assembling and testing of machinery and equipment).
B. Buildings
1. If purchased, cost usually includes its purchase price,
brokerage fees, taxes, title fees, attorney costs, and all
expenditures to make it ready for its intended use (any
necessary repairs or renovations such as wiring, lighting,
flooring and wall coverings).
2. If constructed for own use, cost includes materials and labor
plus a reasonable amount of indirect overhead cost (heat,
lighting, power, and depreciation on machinery used to
construct the asset). Cost also includes design fees, building
permits, and insurance during construction.
C. Land Improvements
Costs that increase the usefulness of the land.
1. Examples: parking lot surfaces, driveways, fences, and
lighting systems (all have limited useful lives).
2. Costs are charged to a separate Land Improvement account.
3. Costs are allocated to the periods they benefit (depreciated)
D. Land
Cost includes purchase price, real estate commissions, title
insurance, legal fees, accrued property taxes, legal fees, title
insurance fees, accrued property taxes, surveying, clearing,
landscaping, and local government assessments (current or future)
for streets, sewers, etc. Also includes cost of removal of any
existing structures (less proceeds from sale of salvaged material).
Land cost is not allocated to expense if it has an indefinite life.
E. Lump-Sum Purchase
A group of plant assets purchased with a single transaction for a
lump-sum price. Individual asset cost is determined by allocating
the cost of the purchase among the different types of assets
acquired based on their relative market values.
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Chapter Outline Notes
II. Depreciation—The process of allocating the cost of a plant asset to
expense in the accounting periods benefiting from its use. Recorded as
a debit to Depreciation Expense and a credit to Accumulated
Depreciation.
A. Factors in Computing Depreciation
1. Cost—described in section I above.
2. Salvage value—(residual value or scrap value) an estimate of
the asset’s value at the end of its benefit period.
3. Useful life—(service life) length of time the asset is expected
to be productively used in a company’s operations. Factors
4. Relationships:
a. Depreciable cost = Cost – Salvage Value
b. Book Value = Cost – Accumulated Depreciation
B. Depreciation Methods
1. Straight-line method—charges the same amount to expense
for each period of the asset’s useful life. Method used by most
companies.
Computation: Cost minus salvage value (equals the
depreciable cost) divided by the number of accounting periods
in the asset’s useful life equals the periodic depreciation.
2. Units-of-production method—charges a varying amount of
cost to expense for each period of an asset’s useful life
depending on its usage. Examples of capacity measurements:
miles driven, product outputs, hours used. Computation:
a. Cost minus salvage value divided by the total number of
units expected to be produced during assets useful life
equals the depreciation per unit.
b. Depreciation per unit is multiplied by number of units
consumed in the period equals the period’s depreciation.
3. Declining-balance method—an accelerated depreciation
method which yields larger depreciation expenses during the
early years of an asset’s life and smaller charges in later years.
Computation: Multiply the asset’s beginning of period book
value by a depreciation rate (usually twice the straight-line
rate) to determine the period’s depreciation. If double the
straight-line rate is used the method is referred to as double
declining-balance. (Note that salvage value is not used in the
calculation.)
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Chapter Outline Notes
4. Depreciation for tax reporting—differences between financial
and tax accounting systems are normal and expected.
a. Many companies use accelerated depreciation in
computing taxable income because it postpones its tax
payments by charging higher depreciation expense in the
early years and lower amounts in the later years.
b. Federal income tax law rules for depreciating assets are
called the Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System
(MACRS).
c. MACRS is not acceptable for financial reporting because
it allocates costs over an arbitrary period that is less than
the asset’s useful life.
C. Partial Year Depreciation
When an asset is purchased (or disposed of) at a time other than
the beginning or end of an accounting period, depreciation is
recorded for part of the year.
D. Revising Depreciation
If estimated salvage and/or useful life is revised:
1. Depreciation expense computations are revised by spreading
the remaining cost to be depreciated over the revised useful
life remaining.
Book value – Revised Salvage Value
Remaining Life
2. The revision is referred to as a change in an accounting
estimate and is reflected in current and future financial
statements, not prior statements.
E. Reporting Depreciation
1. Cost of plant assets and accumulated depreciation are reported
on the balance sheet or in its notes.
2. To satisfy the full-disclosure principle, the depreciation
method or methods used must be disclosed in a balance sheet
note.
3. Plant assets are reported at their undepreciated costs (book
value), not at fair value. (basis is going-concern assumption)
Exception: Impairments (permanent decline in fair value)
allow asset write-downs to fair value.
4. Accumulated depreciation (normal credit balance) on the
balance sheet does not represent funds accumulated to buy
new assets when the presently owned assets must be replaced.
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Chapter Outline Notes
III. Additional Expenditures—Those made to operate, maintain, repair,
or improve plant assets after their initial purchase. To record these
expenditures one must decide whether to capitalize (increase an asset)
or expense in current period.
A. Ordinary Repairs—expenditures to keep an asset in normal, good
operating condition. They do not materially increase the asset’s life
or productive capabilities.
1. Treated as revenue expenditures (also called income statement
expenditures). Recorded as expenses on current period’s
income statement.
2. Examples: cleaning, repainting, and lubricating.
B.Betterments (Improvements) and Extraordinary Repairs—
expenditures to make a plant asset more efficient or productive;
both are treated as a capital expenditure.
1. Betterments often involves adding a component to an asset
that does not always extend its useful life.
a. Examples: adding a wing to a building or changing a
machine from manual function to automatic.
b. Debited to the asset account.
c. The increase in asset’s book value results in need to revise
future depreciation.
2. Extraordinary repairs or replacements are expenditures that do
extend the asset’s useful life beyond its original estimate.
a. Examples: roofing replacement and major overhauls of
machinery and equipment.
b. Treated as capital expenditures (debited to asset account)
because they benefit future periods.
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Chapter Outline Notes
IV. Disposals of Plant Assets—Assets may be discarded, sold, or
exchanged due to wear and tear, obsolescence, inadequacy, or damage
by fire or other accident. General accounting steps in a disposal of a
plant asset:
Record depreciation up to the date of disposal—this also
updates Accumulated Depreciation.
Remove account balances of the disposed asset—including its
Accumulated Depreciation.
Record any cash (and/or other assets) received or paid in the
disposal.
Record any gain or loss resulting from comparing the asset’s
book value with the market value of any assets received.
Exception: in the case of an exchange that lacks commercial
substance—discussed in Appendix 8A.
A. Discarding Plant Assets—no longer useful and has no market
value
Follow general accounting steps above.
1. If fully depreciated, no loss.
2. If not fully depreciated, record loss equal to the book value.
B. Selling Plant Assets
Follow general accounting steps above.
1. Sale is at a gain if value received exceeds book value.
2. Sale is at a loss if value received is less than book value.
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Chapter Outline Notes
V. Natural Resources—Assets that are physically consumed when used.
Examples include timber, mineral deposits, and oil and gas fields.
Often called wasting assets.
A. Cost Determination and Depletion
1. Recorded at cost, which includes all expenditures necessary to
acquire the resource and prepare it for its intended use.
2. Depletion is the process of allocating the cost of natural
resources to the period when it is consumed
3. Depletion expense (debit) per period is based on the units
extracted. The calculation is similar to units-of-production
depreciation. Accumulated depletion is credited in the
recording.
4. Natural resources are reported on the balance sheet at cost less
accumulated depletion.
B. Plant Assets Used in Extracting
When the usefulness of these plant assets is directly related to the
depletion of the resource, the plant asset is depreciated in
proportion to the depletion of the resource (use units-of-production
method and the life of the resource).
VI. Intangible Assets—Certain nonphysical assets (used in operations)
that confer on owners long-term rights, privileges, competitive
advantages. Examples in B below.
A. Cost Determination and Amortization
1. Recorded at cost when purchased. If simply developed by the
business, relative immaterial costs are expensed.
2. Amortization—process of systematically allocating cost of
intangible asset to expense over its estimated useful or
economic life. (If it has an indefinite useful life, it should not
be amortized but is tested annually for impairment—this test is
discussed in advanced course)
a. Useful or economic life may differ from legal life.
b. Computed on a straight-line basis (cost divided by useful
or economic life)
c. Amortization period cannot exceed 40 years.
d. Debit Amortization Expense and credit Accumulated
Amortization.
e. Leasehold improvements are amortized over the life of the
lease or the life of the improvements whichever is shorter.
Debit Rent Expense to amortize.
3 Gross acquisition cost is disclosed on the balance sheet along
with their accumulated amortization.
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Chapter Outline Notes
B. Types of Intangibles
1. Patent—an exclusive right granted to its owner to produce and
sell a patented item or to use a process for 20 years. Costs of
research and development leading to a new patent are expense
when incurred.
2. Copyright—the exclusive right to publish and sell a musical,
literary, or artistic work during the life of the creator plus 70
years.
3. Franchises and Licenses—rights that a company or
government grants an entity to deliver a product or service
under specified conditions. If agreement is for indefinite or
perpetual period, costs are not amortized.
4. Trademarks and Trade Names—symbols, names, phrases, or
jingles identified with a company, product, or service.
5. Goodwill—specific meaning in accounting: the amount by
which the value of a company exceeds the value of its
individual assets and liabilities. Implies the company as a
whole has certain valuable attributes not measured among its
individual assets and liabilities. Goodwill is measured as the
excess of cost of an acquired entity over the valuable of net
assets acquired. Not recorded unless an entire company or
business segment is purchased. It is not amortized but is tested
annually for impairment.
6. Leasehold—the rights to possess and use leased property
granted by the property’s owner (lessor) to the lessee in a
contract called a lease. Recorded, if there was a cost involved,
as an intangible asset by the lessee (or sublessee). As
Leaseholds are amortized, the cost is charged to Rent Expense.
7. Leasehold improvements—alterations or improvements to
leased property, such as partitions, painting, and storefronts.
Amortization results in debit to Amortization Expense—
Leasehold Improvements.
VII. Global View—Compares U.S. GAAP to IFRS
A. Accounting for Plant Assets—both systems are broadly similar on
issues involving cost determination, additional expenditures and
disposal.
1. Decreases in value—although both systems require recording
decline in value to be recorded as asset impairment, the test
for impairment under each system differs. U.S.GAAP uses
fair value and IFRS uses recoverable costs (fair value – costs
to sell).
2. Increase in value—U.S. GAAP prohibits recording increases
in plant asset value whereas IFRS permits upward asset
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