Economic Categories of "Amortization" and "Depreciation": The History of Accounting Concept Formation and Development

Abstract

Abstract. The article deals with the formation and development evolution of the accounting concept of amortization and depreciation of fixed and intangible assets. The methodological sense of the amortization and depreciation accrual processes and the resulting methods of their reflection in the accounting system in the context of historically formulated accounting theories and individual concepts are analysed. An estimation of historical experience through the representation of amortization and deterioration as objects of accounting in interrelation with their economic content is carried out. The level of accounting methods' validity for calculating and displaying amortization charges and the amount of depreciation of fixed assets in the context of their consideration from the position of capital, fund, reserve and regulatory item are analysed. The possibilities of applying separate historically formulated ideas for developing an improved concept of accounting amortization adequate for the modern economy are set forth. The aim of the article is a historiographic analysis of the principal approaches and methodological foundations of accounting conventions of amortization, depreciation, and devaluation of economic entities assets and appropriateness assessment using individual developments in modern theory and practice. The subject of the article is the study of content and nature of amortization and depreciation of fixed assets as general economic categories and accounting objects. Methods of studying the theoretical and methodological basis are the dialectical method of cognition of conceptual processes of "depreciation" and "amortization", analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, comparison, an abstract and logical method of modelling. The practical significance of the work is that historical experience, important and necessary in modern conditions, can be adapted by incrusting several ideas of the past. Value/originality. To develop and adapt accounting concept of amortization to the current conditions, it is advisable to turn to the ideas and conceptual approaches developed in previous historical periods. In particular, it may be considered advisable to use the conceptual framework of E. Schmalenbach, who proposes the creation of a transit account "Reserve for inflation" to account for deviations of the revalued value when placed on the balance of an object. The urgency and, obviously, the advisability of introducing such a "false" object is argued at once by several factors -the real existence of inflationary processes in the modern economy and dynamics of their continuation to the observational period is evident; devaluation of the purchasing power of the accumulated amortization resource; the rapid pace of technological progress does not allow talking about the reproduction of fixed capital by the method of "acquiring an analogue".