How are fully depreciated assets reported on the balance sheet?

Fully depreciated assets that continue to be used are reported at cost in the Property, Plant and Equipment section of the balance sheet. The accumulated depreciation for these assets is also reported in this section. As a result, the combination of these assets’ costs minus their accumulated depreciation will likely be a net amount of zero. This net amount is the carrying amount, carrying value or book value.

The cost and accumulated depreciation will continue to be reported until the company disposes of the assets. The disposal might be the sale or the retirement of the assets.

Fully depreciated assets and their resulting book value of zero reinforces accountants’ position that depreciation is a process to allocate assets’ costs to expense; it is not a process for valuing assets.

Learn more about Depreciation.

About the Author: Harold Averkamp (CPA) has worked as an accountant, consultant, and university accounting instructor for more than 25 years.

He is the author of the 2010 Master Accounting Download Package which has been praised for it's ability to simplify accounting in a way that anybody can understand.