preview

Intangible Assets : Intangible Asset

Decent Essays

What is intangible asset
Companies always have different kinds of assets, such as buildings and machines, but they also have some other assets like brand names, research and development, copyrights or patents. These assets contain three essential characteristics: they are assets, they lack physical substance and they are identifiable non-monetary. This kind of asset is called intangible asset. It can be recognized if it can meet these four criteria: it is separately identifiable, controlled by the enterprise, the expected future economic benefits will flow to the entity and the cost of the assets can be measured reliably. The fair value and validity of the intangible assets and the supply and demand in intangible assets market must be …show more content…

In addition, the difference in the process of creating value between intangible assets and tangible assets are vague. There is interaction between intangible and tangible assets, which make it difficult to measure accurately to what extent the benefits is made by intangible assets. For example, if a company spends money training its staff, the object is to improve future benefits. However, the improvement is uncertain because the staff may not learn very well or the ability they learn cannot help the company making profit. What is worse, the staff may leave in the future but the company had spent money on training. Similarly, advertising is done for sales but the long-term effect is always uncertain.

Secondly, the useful life of an intangible asset can be finite and indefinite. The useful life of intangible assets is often associated with the future expected cash flow of the assets. According to IAS 38, an intangible asset usually be regard as having an indefinite useful life. However, nowadays, as the science and technology is becoming developed, the time of replace an intangible asset becoming shorter, the emergence of the substitutes pose a threat on this intangible asset and there is no doubt that this intangible asset will depreciate rapidly. According to the annual report and financial statements of M&S, “definite life intangibles are amortised on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives. Indefinite life

Get Access