01 June 2010
No. Preliminary expenses are incurred for the incorporation of a company. They may be paid by the promoters before the company is incorporated or by the company after it is incorporated. And they include the following: a) professional charges paid for drafting of memorandum of association and articles of association; b) professional charges for consultation in incorporating the company; c) cost of printing of the initial copies of MoA and AoA; d) stamp duty for the documents; e) registration fee paid to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) for incorporation; f) bank charges incurred on the above; and g) incidental expenses such as stationary, conveyance, and so on.
Accounting treatment of preliminary expenses: Preliminary expenses are capitalised and amortised over a reasonable period of time. Format of balance-sheet of a company provides for disclosure of un-amortised preliminary expenses under the head "Miscellaneous items".
Accounting Standard on preliminary expenses: AS 26 dealing with intangible assets covers preliminary expenses as well. The period over which these preliminary expenses are to be amortised is best left to the judgment of the directors of the company. AS 26 suggests writing off intangible assets over a period of 10 years, though a different period is permissible if it is justified in the opinion of the management. It is a common practice to write off these preliminary expenses in a period of five years, though there is no legal provision to this effect. A company can as well write off its preliminary expenses in the same year as it incurs.
As per AS 26,Only Intangible assets can be amortised over a period of time.Preliminary expenses donot satisfy the recognition criteria for Intangible assets.Hence Preliminary expenses should be writtenoff in the first year itself.
For IT purpose ,it can be amprtised over 5 years.(Sec 35D)
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