Concepts guide - Depreciation

[Jon Lapham]

David Harrison wrote:
>>On Wed, 27 Oct 2004 10:51:16 -0700, David Harrison
>><davidharrisoncga at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Let me do a rewrite and get back to you.
>>>
> Here is the other page on depreciation schemes

David, good stuff.

I updated the web pages with the new text, plus some modifications I 
made, take a look and let me know what you think.  You may need to 
reload the pages to clear you cache to see the changes (I had to do this 
anyway).

Basic Concepts:
http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v1.8/C/gnucash-guide/dep_concepts1.html

1) I added the first sentence definition "Depreciation is the account 
method for tracking the decreasing value of an asset over time."  I know 
that you do not like the "decreasing value" part of that definition, so 
please suggest something else.  But, I think it is important that the 
first sentence define in some way what we are talking about.  Remember, 
this will be the first time many people read about this topic.

2) I think we should pull the first two "reasons for depreciation" into 
the paragraph, rather than having them as bulleted list.  Agree?

3) The list of terminology is great!

4) Do you think it is necessary to have the last paragraph for the 
Personal Finances section that discusses estimating capital gains? 
There is another chapter that talks about the subject... maybe we should 
add a link to that chapter?

5) Business section.  I changed your "small business" to "business".  Is 
that okay?

6) I added the opening paragraph "Whereas in the personal finance world 
depreciation is used to estimate net worth, in the business world 
depreciation is used as a mechanism for receiving a tax deduction. As 
such, it is highly regulated by tax laws."  I'm not sure this is the 
best openning paragraph, but I think we need something that summarizes 
the differences between personal finance and business finance.

7) I kept the "note" which mentions the tax law differences between 
countries.  Okay?

http://www.gnucash.org/docs/v1.8/C/gnucash-guide/dep_value1.html

8) For the estimating depreciation, I was not sure if you wanted to 
remove the section at the beginning that starts with "A central issue 
...".  I think it is important that we mention some places you can go to 
to get estimations of valuation (blue book for cars, tax laws).

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  Jon Lapham  <lapham at jandr.org>                Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
  Personal: http://www.jandr.org/
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