What Are Intangible Assets?
Not all company assets are physical items like property or equipment. Learn what intangible assets are, how to acquire them and how to account for them on your balance sheet.
l Intangible assets cannot be used in the same way as furniture or computers; they include goodwill, trademarks and patents, licenses to operate, and land usage rights.
l Intangible assets can be created or acquired through purchases, exchanges and government grants.
l Money is not considered a tangible or intangible resource. Rather, it is a financial asset.
l This article is for small business owners who want to better understand how to identify and manage their company’s intangible assets.
Intangible assets are the resources a business owns that cannot be moved, like equipment, or handled, like physical property. These intangible assets include goodwill, patents, trademarks, copyrights and more. They hold a lot of value for your business, even though they aren’t physical items you can touch. As a business owner, you’ll need to recognize, manage and amortize your intangible assets. Here’s how to do it.
What are intangible assets?
Intangible assets are the resources a business owns that are not physical, but still provide real value. A common example of intangible assets is intellectual property held by a business, such as songs, designs, trademarks, software licenses, motion pictures, customer lists and franchises.
“Intangible assets can be extremely valuable to the company and in some cases have more value than all of the company’s tangible assets,” said Yarik Kim, an audit partner at Macias Gini & O’Connell LLP. “Just think about companies like Facebook or Twitter, whose ability to reach billions of users is way more valuable than the sum of their tangible assets.”
Here are some additional examples of the types of assets this accounting term refers to:
l Goodwill: Goodwill is often recognized when one business acquires another. It represents the cost paid by a business in excess of the value of the purchased business’s assets. For example, a purchasing company might pay $8 million for a company valued at $7 million, giving the purchased company a goodwill value of $1 million based on its business reputation and other contributing factors.
l Copyright: Granting a copyright to a purchasing company allows it to continue creating and selling the purchased company’s services or products. This is an example of IP as an intangible asset and gives companies real value, both now and in the future, for as long as it holds the exclusive rights to the products or services.
l Patents: A patent grants a manufacturing or research company control over the patent’s use and sale of a specific design. For example, a company may possess a patent for the only way of producing a specific product on the market. Another company could purchase the business with the patent, claim ownership of that patent, and continue overseeing the production of the patented design.
Key takeaway: Intangible assets are resources your business owns that cannot be physically handled, including trademarks, patents and copyrights.
Intangible vs. tangible assets
Unlike intangible assets, tangible assets are the physical resources that hold monetary value and maintain business operations. They include items, property or equipment purchased by your business that have monetary value and can be touched or seen. It’s much easier to track and determine their worth compared to intangible assets.
“This is the type of asset that is usually utilized to produce products and services,” said Timo Wilson, CEO of ASAP Fundr. Tangible assets include office furniture and fixtures, buildings and real estate, computers, equipment, and machinery.
Did you know?: Cash is neither an intangible nor a tangible asset. It’s considered a financial asset, which is an item you own that has monetary value and comes from a contractual claim. Financial assets include cash flow, bonds and bank deposits.
Amortizing intangible assets
Amortization of intangible assets entails expensing out their value over their intended lifetime. Much like tangible assets, intangible assets have a useful lifetime, and accountants track the depreciation of an asset’s value throughout that lifetime.
Some elements, such as goodwill, have an indefinite useful life, whereas patents only possess a useful lifetime of 20 years. The remaining useful lifetime influences the overall intangible asset valuation, much like the age of a company’s equipment.
Some intangibles have a determinable life, also known as a legal life or economic life. In this case the overall value, or cost of the asset, is divided against the remaining duration of its useful life. Such assets include software licenses, patents and customer lists.
Other assets have indeterminable lives dependent on how long the company’s brand will hold value. These assets include brand name and goodwill, elements that are dependent on a company’s reputation and growth rather than a set timeframe.
Accountants commonly amortize intangible assets using the straight-line method. For example, a patent may cost a company $50,000 to obtain. The patent’s legal life is 20 years, but the company only plans to use the patent for 10 years before creating a newer product. The company would then be required to amortize the patent over 10 years, yielding a per-year amortization of $5,000.
Acquiring intangible assets
Businesses obtain intangible assets through various methods. A common practice is to obtain all assets during a company acquisition or merger. These are some other possible methods:
l Separate purchase: Intangible assets can be purchased from an existing company, just like purchasing regular services. For the right price, companies will give up patents and other production rights to the purchaser.
l Government grants: In some circumstances, intangible assets are acquired free of charge through a government grant. For example, the government may transfer or allocate intangible assets, such as licenses to operate or land usage rights, to a company.
l Assets exchange: A company might be acquired through the purchase of its assets in exchange for assets or stock from the purchasing company.
l Self-creation: Not all assets need to be purchased; they can be created internally for use or future sale. In this instance, companies rely on their own in-house resources to create intangible resources.
The value of intangible assets depends on both the cost of creation and the asset’s long-term value. The acquisition and exchange of these assets affect their value, as does the broader market impact of a deal.
Tip: If your business struggles to create intangible assets, consider how acquisitions, mergers and exchanges can help your business make up for those shortcomings.
Using balance sheets to track assets
It’s important to know how to track your tangible, intangible and financial assets. A balance sheet is a financial statement that helps you monitor all these things and gives you an overview of your company’s financial health. According to Angela Nedd, a tax preparer at Expect Tax & Accounting Inc., balance sheets show your assets (what you own), liabilities (what you owe) and equity (net value) at a moment in time.
“The balance sheet is the most important of the three financial statements, as it lets you know whether you’re able to cover your obligations,” Nedd said.
When an entity assigns a perceived value to an intangible asset, such as a jingle, this deceptively changes the perceived value of the entire organization and may temporarily boost its stock value. However, when a company is audited, and such incorrect information is included on an income statement or balance sheet, it creates a problematic situation for investors and stockholders. For example, intangibles like the Coca-Cola brand name are priceless, but they cannot carry value on financial reporting statements.
What intangible assets mean for your business
While the most common examples of intangible assets include patents and software, they can be anything of value that isn’t physically substantive (except financial assets). Understanding the value of intangible assets will give your business an edge. You will better know how to use your existing intangible assets, as well as acquire new ones.
Determining the value of intangible assets isn’t always easy. Placing too much value on an asset can artificially inflate stock prices. You risk paying too much to acquire new assets if you haven’t accurately evaluated them. Placing too little value on your existing assets, on the other hand, could affect depreciation accounting, and competitors may try to acquire your assets at a deflated price.
If you don’t feel comfortable tackling these tasks on your own, hire an experienced accountant. A good accountant can amortize intangible assets so your business maximizes benefits without exposing itself to auditing issues.
什么是无形资产？
并非所有公司资产都是诸如财产或设备之类的实物。了解什么是无形资产、如何获取它们以及如何在资产负债表中对其进行会计处理。
l 无形资产不能像家具或电脑一样使用；它们包括商誉、商标和专利、经营许可和土地使用权。
l 无形资产可以通过购买、交换和政府补助来创造或获得。
l 金钱不被视为有形或无形资源。相反，它是一种金融资产。
l 本文适用于希望更好地了解如何识别和管理公司无形资产的小企业主。
无形资产是企业拥有的不能移动的资源，如设备，或处理的资源，如实物财产。这些无形资产包括商誉、专利、商标、版权等。它们对您的业务具有很大的价值，即使它们不是您可以触摸的实物。作为企业主，您需要识别、管理和摊销您的无形资产。这是如何做到的。
什么是无形资产？
无形资产是企业拥有的非物质资源，但仍能提供实际价值。无形资产的一个常见例子是企业持有的知识产权，例如歌曲、设计、商标、软件许可、电影、客户名单和特许经营权。
Macias Gini & O'Connell LLP 的审计合伙人 Yarik Kim 说：“无形资产对公司来说可能非常有价值，在某些情况下比公司的所有有形资产更有价值。” “想想像 Facebook 或 Twitter 这样的公司，它们接触数十亿用户的能力比他们有形资产的总和更有价值。”
以下是该会计术语所指资产类型的一些其他示例：
l 商誉：商誉通常在一家企业收购另一家企业时得到认可。它代表企业支付的成本超过所购买企业资产的价值。例如，一家采购公司可能会为一家价值 700 万美元的公司支付 800 万美元，根据其商业声誉和其他促成因素，被收购公司的商誉价值为 100 万美元。
l 版权：授予采购公司版权允许其继续创建和销售被采购公司的服务或产品。这是知识产权作为无形资产的一个例子，只要公司拥有产品或服务的专有权，它就可以在现在和未来赋予公司真正的价值。
l 专利：专利授予制造或研究公司控制该专利对特定设计的使用和销售。例如，一家公司可能拥有在市场上生产特定产品的唯一方法的专利。另一家公司可以购买拥有专利的企业，声称拥有该专利的所有权，并继续监督专利设计的生产。
要点：无形资产是您的企业拥有的、无法实际处理的资源，包括商标、专利和版权。
无形资产与有形资产
与无形资产不同，有形资产是具有货币价值并维持业务运营的有形资源。它们包括您的企业购买的具有货币价值并且可以触摸或看到的物品、财产或设备。与无形资产相比，跟踪和确定其价值要容易得多。
“这是通常用于生产产品和服务的资产类型，”ASAP Fundr 首席执行官 Timo Wilson 说。有形资产包括办公家具和固定装置、建筑物和房地产、计算机、设备和机械。
你知道吗？：现金既不是无形资产，也不是有形资产。它被视为一种金融资产，是您拥有的具有货币价值并来自合同索赔的物品。金融资产包括现金流量、债券和银行存款。
摊销无形资产
无形资产的摊销需要在其预期寿命内支出其价值。就像有形资产一样，无形资产也有使用寿命，会计师会在整个生命周期内跟踪资产价值的折旧。
商誉等一些要素的使用寿命是不确定的，而专利的使用寿命只有 20 年。剩余的使用寿命会影响整体无形资产的估值，就像公司设备的使用年限一样。
提示：当您摊销无形资产时，您必须评估资产在其预计经济寿命内的价值。市场上最好的会计软件平台将能够帮助您创建摊销表。
一些无形资产具有可确定的寿命，也称为法定寿命或经济寿命。在这种情况下，资产的总价值或成本将与其使用寿命的剩余期限相除。此类资产包括软件许可证、专利和客户名单。
其他资产的寿命不确定，取决于公司品牌的价值多久。这些资产包括品牌名称和商誉，这些元素取决于公司的声誉和成长，而不是固定的时间框架。
会计师通常使用直线法摊销无形资产。例如，获得一项专利可能需要公司花费 50,000 美元。该专利的合法寿命为 20 年，但该公司仅计划使用该专利 10 年，然后再开发出更新的产品。然后，公司将被要求在 10 年内摊销该专利，每年摊销 5,000 美元。
收购无形资产
企业通过各种方式获得无形资产。一种常见的做法是在公司收购或合并期间获得所有资产。这些是其他一些可能的方法：
l 单独购买：可以从现有公司购买无形资产，就像购买常规服务一样。对于合适的价格，公司将放弃专利和其他生产权给购买者。
l 政府补助：在某些情况下，无形资产是通过政府补助免费取得的。例如，政府可以将经营许可证或土地使用权等无形资产转让或分配给公司。
l 资产交换：公司可能通过购买其资产以换取购买公司的资产或股票而被收购。
l 自创：并非所有资产都需要购买；它们可以在内部创建以供使用或将来销售。在这种情况下，公司依靠自己的内部资源来创造无形资源。
无形资产的价值取决于创造成本和资产的长期价值。这些资产的收购和交换会影响它们的价值，交易的更广泛市场影响也是如此。
提示：如果您的企业难以创造无形资产，请考虑收购、合并和交换如何帮助您的企业弥补这些不足。
使用资产负债表跟踪资产
了解如何跟踪您的有形、无形和金融资产非常重要。资产负债表是一份财务报表，可帮助您监控所有这些事情，并为您提供公司财务状况的概览。根据 Expect Tax & Accounting Inc. 的税务编制者 Angela Nedd 的说法，资产负债表会及时显示您的资产（您拥有什么）、负债（您欠什么）和权益（净值）。
“资产负债表是三份财务报表中最重要的，因为它让你知道你是否有能力履行你的义务，”内德说。
当一个实体将感知价值分配给无形资产（例如叮当声）时，这会欺骗性地改变整个组织的感知价值，并可能暂时提高其股票价值。然而，当一家公司被审计时，这些不正确的信息被包含在损益表或资产负债表中，就会给投资者和股东带来麻烦。例如，像可口可乐品牌这样的无形资产是无价的，但它们不能在财务报告中体现价值。
无形资产对您的业务意味着什么
虽然无形资产最常见的例子包括专利和软件，但它们可以是任何不具实质意义的有价值的东西（金融资产除外）。了解无形资产的价值将为您的企业带来优势。您将更好地了解如何使用现有的无形资产以及获取新的无形资产。
确定无形资产的价值并不总是那么容易。对资产赋予过多的价值会人为地抬高股价。如果您没有准确评估新资产，您就有可能为获取新资产付出太多代价。另一方面，对现有资产的价值过低可能会影响折旧会计，竞争对手可能会试图以降价收购您的资产。
如果您对自己处理这些任务感到不自在，请聘请经验丰富的会计师。一个好的会计师可以摊销无形资产，这样您的企业就可以在不暴露于审计问题的情况下实现利益最大化。
Citation: What Are Intangible Assets?
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