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In finance, bad debt, occasionally called uncollectible accounts expense, is a monetary amount owed to a creditor that is unlikely to be paid and for which the creditor is not willing to take action to collect for various reasons, often due to the debtor not having the money to pay, for example due to a company going into liquidation or insolvency.
The purpose of making such a declaration is to help support a tax deduction for bad debts under Section 166 of the Internal Revenue Code. In that respect it is a form of write-off. Bad debts and even fraud are simply part of the cost of doing business. The charge-off, though, does not free the debtor of having to pay the debt.
The distinction is that while a write-off is generally completely removed from the balance sheet, a write-down leaves the asset with a lower value. [4] As an example, one of the consequences of the 2007 subprime crisis for financial institutions was a revaluation under mark-to-market rules: "Washington Mutual will write down by $150 million the ...
A Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) is a legal agreement between the company and its creditors, based on paying a fixed amount lower than the outstanding actual debt. These are normally based on a monthly payment, and at the end of the agreed term the remaining debt is written-off.
The accounting equation plays a significant role as the foundation of the double-entry bookkeeping system. The primary aim of the double-entry system is to keep track of debits and credits and ensure that the sum of these always matches up to the company assets, a calculation carried out by the accounting equation. It is based on the idea that ...
The net free cash flow definition should also allow for cash available to pay off the company's short term debt. It should also take into account any dividends that the company means to pay. Net free cash flow = Operation cash flow − Capital expenses to keep current level of operation − dividends − Current portion of long term debt − ...
Debits and credits are traditionally distinguished by writing the transfer amounts in separate columns of an account book. This practice simplified the manual calculation of net balances before the introduction of computers; each column was added separately, and then the smaller total was subtracted from the larger.
An organization that specializes in debt collection is known as a collection agency or debt collector. [1] Most collection agencies operate as agents of creditors and collect debts for a fee or percentage of the total amount owed. [2] Historically, debtors could face debt slavery, debtor's prison, or coercive collection methods. In the 21st ...