24 November 2008
Fixed assets are held by an enterprise for the purpose of producing goods or rendering services, as opposed to being held for resale in the normal course of business. For example, machines, buildings, patents or licences can be fixed assets of a business. The purpose of a revaluation is to bring into the books the fair market value of fixed assets. This may be helpful in order to decide whether to invest in another business. If a company wants to sell one of its assets, it is revalued in preparation for sales negotiations.
24 November 2008
An impaired asset is a condition in which an asset's market value falls below its carrying amount and is not expected to recover. This means that an asset's market valuation is less than the book value of the asset and the future cash flows to be generated from the asset are less than the net difference of the market value and the book value of the asset. At this point it becomes necessary to write down the value of the asset in the books by debiting a loss account (which will show up as an expense in the income statement) and crediting the respective asset account. This is a common occurrence for goodwill where a company will purchase another company for more than the value of the net assets of the target company. Under US GAAP, goodwill is tested annually for impairment.
CAclubindia
