Recognizing and Managing Intangible Assets in Accounting

The accounting for a lease depends on whether it is a capital lease or an operating lease.
The rights contained in this agreement usually are called leaseholds.
Excluding these transactions and realized debt securities losses from the current quarter, adjusted net income1 was $156.0 million, or $0.49 per diluted common share.
Tangibles, meanwhile, usually have a physical form or at least a finite or recorded monetary value.
The protection and management of intangible assets goes beyond just the legal protection of IP rights.

How are intangible assets accounted for on a company’s balance sheet?

Proper valuation and accounting of intangible assets is often problematic because of the difficulty in assigning value to them. This difficulty partially arises from the uncertainty of their future benefits—and the difficulty in reliably measuring their costs. Intangible assets only appear on a company’s balance sheet if they are acquired through a purchase—they are not internally developed—and therefore, they have an identifiable value and identifiable lifespan. They’re included on a company’s balance sheet as long-term assets and valued according to their price and amortization schedules. Even though intangible assets can’t be seen and held, they provide value for companies as brand names, logos, or mailing lists.