Master in Accounts & high court Advocate
9489 Points
Joined December 2011
The difference between a write-off and a write-down is just a matter of degree. A write-down is performed in accounting to reduce the value of an asset to offset a loss or expense. A write-down becomes a write-off if the entire balance of the asset is eliminated and removed from the books altogether.
written off means 1 : to eliminate (an asset) from the books : enter as a loss or expense write off a bad loan. 2 : to regard or concede to be lost most were content to write off 1979 and look optimistically ahead — Money also : dismiss was written off as an expatriate highbrow