Accounting theory and practice, Volume 2 (of 3) : a textbook for colleges and…
4. MISCELLANEOUS METHODS
492 words | Chapter 65
Criticisms of the miscellaneous theories can be brief.
(a) Maintenance Method
This method is irregular in its incidence, and under it the
depreciation charge fluctuates violently between periods. Just as
maintenance is subordinated to the requirements and demands of the
trade, so also are depreciation costs made to depend on the same
conditions. The charging of depreciation thus becomes a matter of
business convenience instead of an inexorable fact of production. Just
as repairs are postponed to a slack period during which maintenance
charges are in consequence heavy, so does the depreciation charge
increase even though actual wear and tear has decreased. Presumably
the method makes charges light during the early years and heavy
during the later years of the life of the asset. In a large plant
with various kinds of assets, after a normal up-keep charge has been
established, the maintenance method of estimating the periodic charge
for depreciation for the plant as a whole may work out fairly well on
the theory of averages or by accident; for maintenance is not a measure
of depreciation.
(b) Replacement Method
This is not a method of measuring depreciation but rather of
financing it, i.e., of making good the loss. It also is based on
the law of averages, and in a large plant after the point of normal
replacements has been reached it may prove a satisfactory method of
accomplishing its purpose. It does not serve as a means whereby a
periodic depreciation charge can be brought on the books. Furthermore,
it disregards the depreciation accrued up to the point of normal
replacements.
(c) Fifty Per Cent Method
This method is also based on the law of averages. Here the law is very
apt to work out satisfactorily. When the point of normal replacement of
the assets, to which the 50% method is applicable, has been reached,
the amount of depreciation is approximately 50% of the original value
of the group of assets. This amount may be booked at that time and
will remain without change thereafter, for the assets are maintained
constantly in that condition. As a means of valuation, the method may
serve well; as a measure of periodic depreciation or as a means of
distributing the depreciation cost over the product, it is inadequate.
(d) Appraisal Method
This method is also inadequate as a means of measuring the periodic
cost of depreciation. The physical facts of depreciation are not
usually discernible at such short intervals. A judgment of values
must, therefore, almost invariably make use, consciously or
unconsciously, of some of the other methods of estimating the amount
of depreciation by periods. After all, all methods of measuring
depreciation are appraisals. Under the appraisal method confusion
between original cost and reproduction cost is almost certain to
occur, for present market values usually control physical appraisals.
A discussion of the relative merits of original cost and reproduction
cost as a proper basis for estimating depreciation will be presented in
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