Write-Off Meaning
Write off is the reduction in the value of the assets that were present in the books of accounts of the company on a particular period of time and are recorded as the accounting expense against the payment not received or the losses on the assets.
A write-Off happens when the recorded book value of an asset is reduced to zero. Usually, this occurs when the assets of the business cannot be liquidated and are of no further use to the business or have no market value.
It can be defined as the process of removing an asset or liabilityAsset Or LiabilityWhat makes Assets & Liabilities different is that while the former refers to anything that a Company owns to gain long-term economic benefits, the latter refers to anything that the Company owes to other parties. read more from the accounting books and financial statements of a companyFinancial Statements Of A CompanyFinancial statements are written reports prepared by a company's management to present the company's financial affairs over a given period (quarter, six monthly or yearly). These statements, which include the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Cash Flows, and Shareholders Equity Statement, must be prepared in accordance with prescribed and standardized accounting standards to ensure uniformity in reporting at all levels.read more. For example, this might happen when inventory becomes obsolete, or there is no particular use of a fixed asset. Generally, it is done by moving a part of or all of the balance in an asset accountBalance In An Asset AccountAsset Accounts are one of the categories in the General Ledger Accounts holding all the credit & debit details of a Company’s assets. The examples include Short-Term Investments, Prepaid Expenses, Supplies, Land, equipment, furniture & fixtures etc. read more to an expense account. It varies with the types of assets.
It usually occurs once and is not spread over various periods. A tax write-off is the reduction of taxable income. In retail companies, the common write-offs are damaged goods, and in industrial companies, it happens when a productive asset gets damaged and is beyond repair.
Why is Write-Off done in Accounting?
It happens mainly because of two reasons.
- It helps with tax savings options for asset owners. Actions like these reduce tax liability by creating expenses that are non-cash in nature, which ultimately results in lower reported income.
- It supports the objectives of cost accounting accuracy.
Write-Offs Examples
- Bad Debt – Bad Debt can happen when a business client owes money to the company but is unable to pay back the invoice amount since the client has been declared bankrupt. The amount of debt that could not be collected is taken as a loss, and the company writes it off on its tax return.
- Asset Write-Offs – This happens when a company removes an account. In this case, the asset’s value has gone down to zero, and that is the reason for writing off the asset from the accounting records.
- Accounts Receivables – In the situation accounting receivable not being collected, it is usually offset against the allowance for doubtful accountsAllowance For Doubtful AccountsAllowance for doubtful accounts primarily means creating an allowance for the estimated part that may be uncollectible and may become bad debt and is shown as a contra asset account that reduces the gross receivables on the balance sheet to reflect the net amount expected to be paid.read more, i.e., contra accountContra AccountContra Account is an opposite entry passed to offset its related original account balances in the ledger. It helps a business retrieve the actual capital amount & amount of decrease in the value, hence representing the account’s net balances. read more.
- Inventory – In the case of obsolete inventory, this can either be charged directly to the cost of goods soldThe Cost Of Goods SoldThe Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) is the cumulative total of direct costs incurred for the goods or services sold, including direct expenses like raw material, direct labour cost and other direct costs. However, it excludes all the indirect expenses incurred by the company. read more or offset against the reserve for inventory, which is obsolete (contra account).
- Advanced Pay – When a pay advance given to an employee cannot be collected, then it is charged to compensation expenses.
How Write-Off is Applicable for Banks
source: cnbc.com
A bank is in the business of lending money to individuals or companies. In an ideal situation, banks expect to get back the money that they lend to other organizations, for the expansion of their business. But there are situations where the organizations fail to generate income from their operations, end up making losses, and defaulting on their loan payments.
That is why banks maintain the provision for bad debt. For banks, loans are there primary assets and source of future revenue. If the bank is not able to collect a loan or there is minimal chance of the collection of a loan, then it affects the financial statements of a bank and will result in diverting resources from other productive assets.
As a result of loans that have a high probability of getting defaulted, banks use write-offs for those loans from their balance sheetBalance SheetA balance sheet is one of the financial statements of a company that presents the shareholders' equity, liabilities, and assets of the company at a specific point in time. It is based on the accounting equation that states that the sum of the total liabilities and the owner's capital equals the total assets of the company.read more.
Bank’s Write-Off
Let us understand with the help of an example of how a bank reports a loan in its financial statements and maintains the provision for the bad debt. Suppose a bank lends $100,000 to an organization and have a 5% provision for bad debt against that loan. Once the bank lends the loan, it will report $5000 as expenses in its financial statements. The remaining $95,000 will be reported as assets in the balance sheet.
If the default amount is more the provision made by the bank, then the bank will write-off that amount from receivables and will also report additional expenses. For example, if the default amount says $10,000, $5000 more than the provision for the bad debtProvision For The Bad DebtA bad debt provision refers to the reserve made by a company to set aside an amount computed as a specific percentage of overall doubtful or bad debts that has to be written off in the next year.read more. Then the bank will report an additional $5,000 as the expense and will also remove the entire amount.
When the bank removes the non-performing assetNon-performing AssetNon-Performing Assets (NPA) refers to the classification of loans and advances on a lender's records (usually banks) that have not received interest or principal payments and are considered "past due." In the majority of cases, debt has been classified as non-performing assets (NPAs) when loan payments have been outstanding for more than 90 days.read more from its books, it receives the tax deduction for the loan amount. Moreover, even if the loan is written off, the bank has the option to pursue the loan and generate some revenue from that bank. The banks also avail the possibility of selling the defaulted loans to third-party agencies to recover those loans from the customers.
Banks around the world are still under pressure due to the subprime crisis that affected the banking system. The customers took the loan for their house in lieu of mortgaging the house and could not return the loan. These loans needed to be written off form their balance sheet and, as a result, put a lot of pressure on the financial health of the bank. A similar situation has happened in India as well, where banks, mainly public sector banks, have lent money to organizations that have defaulted their loan payments. This situation resulted in writing off the loans from the balance sheet, resulting in shrinking of the book value of the banks.
Final Thoughts
Whenever a company has to write-off asset faces its impact on the future flow of revenueRevenueRevenue is the amount of money that a business can earn in its normal course of business by selling its goods and services. In the case of the federal government, it refers to the total amount of income generated from taxes, which remains unfiltered from any deductions.read more, as the asset can no longer generate any source of revenue for the company. But despite that, a company needs to write-off asset which is no longer in use for the company, as it helps the company to become cleaner and also avoid the situation of that asset using resources of another productive asset.
Write-Offs Video
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