MAA363 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Identifiability, Book Value, Contingent Liability
Document Summary
Intangible asset = an identifiable non-monetary asset without physical substance. Examples: patents, mastheads brand names, copyrights, research and development, trademarks etc. It must be identifiable in order to distinguish it from goodwill. An asset is identifiable if a specific value can be placed on each individual asset, and they can separately identified and sold. Intangible assets, as a category, must be separately disclosed in the statement of financial position. Unidentifiable intangible assets = intangible assets that cannot be separately sold e. g. goodwill. The recognition of internally generated goodwill is prohibited. The unidentifiable intangible asset of goodwill is permitted to be recognised for accounting purposes only when it has been externally acquired. Identifiability: control over a resource by the entity, existence of future economic benefits. It is probable that the expected future economic benefits will flow to the entity: the cost of the asset can be measured reliably.
