What are the Capital Expenditures in Accounting

Capital Expenditures-This is an important type of expense. By this article, you are going to understand all about Capital Expenditures such as definition, examples, identification, calculation, types, and more faqs related to Capital Expenditures in accounting terms.

What are the Capital Expenditures?

Capital Expenditure is expenses that generate enduring benefits and helps in revenue generation over more than one accounting period. capital expenditures are placed on the asset side of the balance sheet as they will generate benefits for more than one accounting period and will be transferred to the profit and loss account of the year on the basis of utilization of that benefit in a particular accounting year.

What are the features of Capital Expenditures?

  1. Capital Expenditure is expenses that generate enduring benefits and helps in revenue generation over more than one accounting period.
  2. Non recurring in Nature
  3. Long term benefits
  4. Available for capitalization
  5. It enhances the value of existing assets
  6. Has a physical presence except for intangible assets
  7. It appears as assets in the balance sheet and some portion in the income statement
  8. Do not reduce business revenue
  9. Examples- software, building, vehicle, etc.

What are the examples of Capital Expenditures?

These are the examples of Capital Expenditures

  1. Software
  2. Vehicles
  3. Buildings (including subsequent costs that extend the useful life of a building)
  4. Computer equipment
  5. Office equipment
  6. Furniture and fixtures (including the cost of the furniture that is aggregated and treated as a single unit, such as a group of desks)
  7. Intangible assets (such as a purchased taxi license or a patent)
  8. Land (including the cost of upgrading the land, such as the cost of an irrigation system or a parking lot)
  9. Machinery (including the costs required to bring the equipment to its intended location and for its intended use)

How do you identify Capital Expenditures?

We can know how to identify a capital expense through some examples

Example 1 -Expenses incurred in connection with obtaining a license for starting the factory for Rs. 20,000.

Solution-Money paid Rs. 20,000 for obtaining a license to start a factory is a capital expenditure. This is an item of expenditure incurred to acquire the right to carry on business.

Example 2-Rings and Pistons of an engine were changed at a cost of Rs. 10,000 to get fuel efficiency.

Solution-Rs. 10,000 spent on changing Rings and Pistons of an engine to get fuel efficiency is capital expenditure. This is expenditure on the improvement of a fixed asset. It results in increasing the profit-earning capacity of the business through cost reduction.

Example 3-A factory shed was constructed at a cost of Rs. 1,00,000. A sum of Rs. 5,000 had been incurred in the construction of temporary huts for storing building material.

Solution-Cost of the construction of the building including the cost of temporary huts is capital expenditure. The building is a fixed asset that will generate enduring benefits to the business over more than one accounting period. The construction of temporary huts is incidental to the main construction. Such cost is also capitalized with the cost of building.

How do you calculate Capital Expenditures?

you can understand how you can calculate Capital Expenditures through the given examples

For example-if Rs. 30000 is spent on the repair of second-hand machinery and Rs.5000 on freight in connection with its acquisition, then what is the capital expenditure?

Solution– In this question capital expenditure is 30000+5000=35000 Rs.

1- when a second-hand asset is purchased and expenditure is incurred to bring the asset into working order then it is treated as capital expenditure.
2- In the given example, second-hand machinery is purchased and a sum of money is spent upon overhauling repairing and acquiring it. The expenditure on acquisition and overhauling will be considered as capital expenditure.

What are the types of Capital Expenditures?

Capital Expenditures are classified into three categories-

  1. Expenditure made to reduce costs
  2. Expenditure made to increase revenue
  3. And expenditure that is justified on non-economic grounds

How Capital Expenditure is different from revenue Expenditure?

You can know how it is different from revenue expenditure throughout the given table

S.NOCapital ExpenditureRevenue Expenditure
1Capital Expenditure is expenses that generate enduring benefits and helps in revenue generation over more than one accounting period.The Revenue Expenditures are expenses that relate to the operations of the business during an accounting period.
2Long term benefitsshort term benefits
3Non recurring in NatureRecurring in Nature
4Available for capitalizationNot available for capitalization
5It enhances the value of existing assetsIt does not enhance the value of existing assets
6Has a physical presence except for intangible assetsDoes not have a physical presence
7It appears as assets in the balance sheet and some portion in the income statementIt always appears in the income statement
8Do not reduce business revenueIt reduces business revenue
9Examples- software, building, vehicle, etc.Examples- Rent, Electricity bills, salary, etc.

faqs on Capital Expenditures

What is the definition of Capital Expenditures?

Capital expenditures refer to funds that are used by a company for the purchase, improvement, or maintenance of long-term assets to improve the efficiency or capacity of the company. Long-term assets are usually physical, fixed, and non-consumable assets such as property, equipment, or infrastructure, and that have a useful life of more than one accounting period.

What are Capital Expenditures as per income tax?

The expenditures that are incurred by an organization for long-term benefits are known as capital expenditures. These expenditures serve the purpose of increasing the capacity or capabilities of the long-term asset by either enhancing or adding new assets to the organization.

Which one is Capital expenditure?

  1. 10,000 spent as traveling expenses of the directors on trips abroad for the purchase of capital assets.
  2. Amount received from Trade receivables during the year.
  3. Amount spent on the demolition of building to construct a bigger building on the same site.
  4. Insurance claim received on account of machinery damaged by fire.

Answers are

  1. Capital expenditure.
  2. Revenue receipt.
  3. Capital expenditure.
  4. Capital receipt.

Find the nature of the Expenditure

Q1-Expenses incurred in connection with obtaining a license for starting the factory for Rs. 20,000.
(a) Capital receipt
(b) Revenue receipt
(c) Capital expenditures

Ans. (c) Capital expenditures

What is CapEx?

Capital expenditures are also known as CapEx or capital expenses. Capital expenditures include the purchase of items such as new equipment, machinery, land, plant, buildings or warehouses, furniture and fixtures, business vehicles, software, or intangible assets such as a patent or license.

What is the importance of capital expenditure?

Decisions on how much to invest in capital expenditures can often be extremely vital decisions made by an organization. They are important because of the following reasons:

  1. High initial cost
  2. long term effects
  3. Irreversibility
  4. Depreciation.

What are the challenges in capital expenditure?

these are the challenges in capital expenditure-

  1. Measurement problems
  2. Unpredictability
  3. Temporal spread

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