I believe it is the job of the accountant to calculate the depreciation
based on existing norms (such as GAAP). Some government bodies (like GASB
in USA) do prescribe depreciation norms for different asset classes
including books. Sometimes there could be a rule of thumb ('others'
category) which will have a fixed rate (say 10% for 10 years).
In simplistic terms, depreciation is basically a concept from business
world to keep account of capital expenditure ('capex') on buying assets
(plants, machines, etc.). The capex is then distributed to the number of
years (approximate useful life) the asset will be in use. The capex is then
divided by the number of years (this is just one of the methods of
calculating depreciation), which then gets deducted from operating income
each year (till the useful life expires) for the purpose of net profit/loss
calculation.
For a librarian, the useful life of books will vary based on audience,
genre, etc. For example, college text-books may have shorter shelf-life
than literary classics. Secondly, training-related publications may have
even shorter shelf-life and thus may come under regular expenses, not
assets.
Ask the accountant to look for official guidelines available in India for
such cases. In absence of such guidelines, there is no harm in using a
guideline from another country I guess. For accounting is an exercise in
approximate values in many cases, especially in intangible values like in
case of books.
Best regards,
Saiful Amin
+91-9343826438
Skype: saiful.amin
On Sun, Jul 26, 2015 at 5:58 PM, NIHAD FAISAL
Dear professionals,
Could anybody suggest the useful life of library books to calculate the depreciation in Accounting purpose? Our accounts department is asking approximate years of using of print books for depreciation calculation. kindly suggest your view in this regard.
Thanking you
Yours faithfully,
--
*NIHAD FAISAL +965 65949240, 5590280*
*The information contained in this e-mail and any files transmitted with it are likely to be confidential and for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) named above only. It may contain confidential and privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, dissemination, forwarding, printing or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. You may forward this e-mail and / or attachments to a third party on a strict "need to know" basis.*
-- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.