Capital Asset
Question: When is an asset not a capital asset?
Answer: When it has a useful life of less than one year.
We're going to get really philosophical here for a second. In day-to-day living, what a useful life is can be hard to define. Exit philosophers. Enter accountants. In the world of accounting, it is really very simple.
Capital assets that normally have a useful life longer than a year include buildings, land, and major equipment, but they can also include trademarks, patents, copyrights, trucks and even artwork. You normally would not be buying and selling a capital asset on a daily basis...it's there for the long term.
Capital assets are an important line item on a company's balance sheet. If Cupcakes For All bought a new automatic cupcake maker for $10,000 this year, that is the number it would put on its balance sheet. But capital assets are usually depreciated and become worth less over time. So by year five, the book value has decreased and it might only be listed as a $2,000 capital asset on their balance sheet.
Companies can set up their own definition of what assets should be capitalized and figure out the depreciation schedule for each. However, auditors from the IRS will spot those who depreciate an asset for a very long period of time in an attempt to inflate their profits with very small depreciation expenses.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is a Hard Asset?12 Views
Finance allah shmoop What is Ah hard asset Yeah It
takes a lot of hard work to get an asset
like that Okay So hard asset is just one that
you can bang on touch Engage with cell Alright examples
Oil it's Hard asset gold Hard of vintage nineteen Fifty
seven Ferrari with beige leather interior hard four thousand head
of longhorn cattle in texas A commercial building in the
best part of town All of these arm or less
commodities Hard assets Well okay Okay The categories Rare cars
art coins stamps stuff like that that's where they fit
So what do you care if something is ah hard
asset or a soft one Well most or all hard
assets are commodities and they generally do very well in
periods of very high inflation when you know stocks were
getting crushed And yeah the feds raising rates appoint a
quarter now forever Well equities and bonds will get crushed
Commodities well generally keep up with the spike in prices
causing the fed raised rates in the first place So
they're a good hedge for most investment portfolios And not
all of them are great forever like check out riel
Inflation adjusted oil prices the last few decades you had
not a good run Most not all do well though
an oil will likely have its day in the sun
again At some point you lan When in doubt remember
what kim kardashian and warren buffett said A good asset
is hard to find and a hard asset is good
to find But we won't tell you who said which
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