What Does Impairment Mean in Accounting? With Examples

What Is Impairment?

In accounting, impairment is a permanent reduction in the value of a company asset. It may be a fixed asset or an intangible asset.

When testing an asset for impairment, the total profit, cash flow, or other benefits that can be generated by the asset is periodically compared with its current book value. If the book value of the asset exceeds the future cash flow or other benefits of the asset, the difference between the two is written off, and the value of the asset declines on the company's balance sheet.

Understanding Impairment

Impairment is most commonly used to describe a drastic reduction in the recoverable value of a fixed asset. The impairment may be caused by a change in the company's legal or economic circumstances or by a casualty loss from an unforeseeable disaster.

For example, a construction company may face extensive damage to its outdoor machinery and equipment due to a natural disaster. This will appear on its books as a sudden and large decline in the fair value of these assets to below their carrying value.

An asset's carrying value, also known as its book value, is the value of the asset net of accumulated depreciation that is recorded on a company's balance sheet.

Periodic Evaluation for Impairment

An accountant tests assets for potential impairment periodically. If any impairment exists, the accountant writes off the difference between the fair value and the carrying value. Fair value is normally derived as the sum of an asset's undiscounted expected future cash flows and its expected salvage value, which is what the company expects to receive from selling or disposing of the asset at the end of its life.

Other accounts that may be impaired, and thus need to be reviewed and written down, are the company's goodwill and its accounts receivable.

A company's capital can also become impaired. An impaired capital event occurs when a company's total capital becomes less than the par value of the company's capital stock.

Unlike impairment of an asset, impaired capital can naturally reverse when the company's total capital increases back above the par value of its capital stock.

Impairment vs. Depreciation

Impairment is unexpected damage. Depreciation is expected wear and tear.

The value of fixed assets such as machinery and equipment depreciates over time. The amount of depreciation taken in each accounting period is based on a predetermined schedule using either a straight line method or one of a number of accelerated depreciation methods.

Depreciation schedules allow for a set distribution of the reduction of an asset's value over its lifetime, unlike impairment, which accounts for an unusual and drastic drop in the fair value of an asset.

For instance:

• A tractor depreciates in value from year to year throughout its useful lifetime.
• A tractor that gets crushed by a falling tree has experienced an impairment that must be recorded on the books as such.

GAAP Requirements for Impairment

Under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), assets are considered to be impaired when their fair value falls below their book value.

Any write-off due to an impairment loss can have adverse effects on a company's balance sheet and its resulting financial ratios. It is, therefore, important for a company to test its assets for impairment periodically.

Certain assets, such as intangible goodwill, must be tested for impairment on an annual basis in order to ensure that the value of assets is not inflated on the balance sheet.

GAAP also recommends that companies take into consideration events and economic circumstances that occur between annual impairment tests in order to determine if it is "more likely than not" that the fair value of an asset has dropped below its carrying value.

Causes of Impairment

Specific situations in which an asset might become impaired and unrecoverable include when a significant change occurs to an asset's intended use when there is a decrease in consumer demand for the asset, damage to the asset, or adverse changes to legal factors that affect the asset.

If these types of situations arise mid-year, it's important to test for impairment immediately.

Standard GAAP practice is to test fixed assets for impairment at the lowest level where there are identifiable cash flows. For example, an auto manufacturer should test for impairment for each of the machines in a manufacturing plant rather than for the high-level manufacturing plant itself. If there are no identifiable cash flows at this low level, it's allowable to test for impairment at the asset group or entity level.

Example of Impairment

ABC Company, based in Florida, purchased a building many years ago at a historical cost of $250,000. It has taken a total of $100,000 in depreciation on the building and therefore has $100,000 in accumulated depreciation. The building's carrying value, or book value, is $150,000 on the company's balance sheet.

A category 5 hurricane damages the structure significantly. The company determines that the situation qualifies for impairment testing.

After assessing the damages, ABC Company determines the building is now only worth $100,000. The building is therefore impaired and the asset value must be written down to prevent overstatement on the balance sheet.

A debit entry is made to "Loss from Impairment," which will appear on the income statement as a reduction of net income, in the amount of $50,000 ($150,000 book value – $100,000 calculated fair value).

As part of the same entry, a $50,000 credit is also made to the building's asset account, to reduce the asset's balance, or to another balance sheet account called the "Provision for Impairment Losses."

The Bottom Line

Impairment refers to the reduction in the value of a company asset, either a fixed asset or an intangible asset. The entire value of the asset is not typically recorded as a loss, but most often the difference between the predicted cash flow of the asset and the book value (if the book value is higher) is the amount recorded as a loss.

Periodically evaluating the value of assets helps a company accurately record its asset value rather than overstating its asset value, which could lead to financial problems later on.