Asset with rebate

[Mike or Penny Novack]

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>The problem with this (to my mind) is that I'd like to include repairs in the "cost" of the asset, but can't, but it doesn't bother me too much.
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If you are doing depreciation of the asset and/or needing to keep track 
of the basis of the asset for future "capital gains" accounting when the 
asset is disposed of then the costs of certain sorts of repairs that are 
considered major/life extending do get added to the basis and may or may 
not need to be depreciated separately. It is perhaps an unfortunate 
reality but using a tool such as GnuCash to keep our books does not mean 
we don't know how to DO accounting. With personal finances accounting 
might not matter exactly how we do things but if there are tax 
implications then it does matter.

In terms of the original question -- the amount you enter for the value 
of the asset (the "book value") isn't the ACTUAL value but what you paid 
for it if you keep your books on the cash basis. That difference would 
appear later only when you disposed of the asset for more than the book 
value as a "capital gain". If keeping the books on an accrual basis you 
could book the correction earlier as an "unrealized capital gain".

Here the house was bought for $35,000 split between cash and a loan or 
for $40,000 split between cash, a loan, and an unrealized capital gain.

Michael