The straight line method spreads asset costs evenly over its lifespan, aiding budget forecasts. Its simplicity is favored by many tax authorities, making it a widely used accounting tool. Businesses ...

Troy Segal is an editor and writer. She has 20+ years of experience covering personal finance, wealth management, and business news. Toby Walters is a financial writer, investor, and lifelong learner.

The GAAP approves four different methods for depreciating business assets: the straight-line method, the units of production method, the declining balance method and the sum-of-the-year's-digits ...

The straight-line method is the simplest way to account for the amortization of a bond on a company's financial statements. This method attributes equal interest expense to every accounting period ...

Accelerated depreciation allows businesses to write off the cost of an asset more quickly than the traditional straight-line method. This can provide asset owners with potentially valuable tax ...

When your company purchases a fixed asset with an estimated lifetime exceeding one year, you cannot deduct the entire cost in the year of purchase. Rather, you must depreciate the asset by expensing a ...

Steven Nickolas is a writer and has 10+ years of experience working as a consultant to retail and institutional investors. Charlene Rhinehart is a CPA , CFE, chair of an Illinois CPA Society committee ...