Disposal of fixed asset

Mike or Penny Novack stepbystepfarm at mtdata.com
Tue Feb 28 07:38:16 EST 2012


Axel Essbaum wrote:

>On Feb 28, 2012, at 8:01, Stein Erik Berget wrote:
>
>  
>
>>On Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:57:44 +0100, Axel Essbaum <axel at essbaum.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Details:
>>>
>>>I have an old laptop for my business.  It was purchased for $800 on 1.1.2009.  Its value today (after depreciation) is $161.  I just sold it for $200.  I understand I have $39 of profit but I really have no idea how to record it.  Is the $200 considered income?  Like, should it come from a "Sale of assets" income account?
>>>      
>>>
>>I'm not an accountant, but I would do it like this:
>>
>>As seen from the 'bank account':
>>			Deposit		Withdraw
>>asset:bank account: 	$200
>>asset:oldcomputer:                	$161
>>income:sold off asset:					  $39
>>    
>>
I'm not an accountant either but ............. (and why we should only 
be giving "how to do using gnucash" as opposed to "how to do using any 
form of bookkeeping")

You need to keep separate income/expense from capital gains as opposed 
to income/expense from normal operations because you need that 
separation for tax purposes.

I'm going to point something out here. Basic accounting texts may show 
only one account used where we would use two, That's because in old 
fashioned pen and ink on paper bookkeeping it's easy with one account to 
have the totals for both sides of that ledger account. No automatic 
balance at each transaction and whether the (actual) net balance is 
debit or credit doesn't matter (in other words, just determines whether 
a net income or a net expense). With a autobalancing software easier to 
have two account.

Michael


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