What are Tangible Assets?

Описание: Welcome to the Investors Trading Academy talking glossary of financial terms and events.
Our word of the day is “Tangible Asset”.

Tangible asset are assets that have a physical form. Tangible assets include both fixed assets, such as machinery, buildings and land, and current assets, such as inventory. The opposite of a tangible asset is an intangible asset. Nonphysical assets, such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, goodwill and brand recognition, are all examples of intangible assets. Tangible assets include Cash, equipment, machinery, plant, property or anything that has long-term physical existence. In the balance sheet of the business, such assets are listed under the heading 'Plant and equipment' or 'Plant, property, and equipment.' Tangible assets, unlike intangible assets, can be destroyed by fire, hurricane, or other disasters or accidents. However, they can be used as collateral to raise loans, and can be more readily sold to raise cash in emergencies.
Certain types of assets receive special treatment for accounting purposes. For tangible assets with an anticipated useful life of more than one year, a company uses a process called depreciation to allocate part of the asset's expense to each year of its useful life, instead of allocating the entire expense to the year in which the asset is purchased.

By Barry Norman, Investors Trading Academy