Bond Discount with Straight-Line Amortization

Similarly to mortgage professionals, bank loan officers often formulate payment plans for their clients using the straight-line amortization method. Knowing what straight-line amortization is and how to calculate it can help you plan your interest payments. Regardless of your role within the financial team, knowing when and how to use straight-line amortization can have a direct impact on your organization’s financial health. Applying and calculating straight-line amortization is a valuable skill, but it requires research and practice. In this article, we define straight-line amortization, discuss who uses it, explain how to calculate it and provide an example of how to use it. You would also credit a special kind of asset account called an accumulated depreciation account. These accounts have credit balance (when an asset has a credit balance, it’s like it has a ‘negative’ balance) meaning that they decrease the value of your assets as they increase.

To calculate straight line depreciation for an asset, you need the asset’s purchase price, salvage value, and useful life. The salvage value is the amount the asset is worth at the end of its useful life. Whereas the depreciable base is the purchase price minus the salvage value. Depreciation continues until the asset value declines to its salvage value. The IRS began to use what’s called the Accelerated Cost System of depreciation in 1986. Under MACRS, you have the option of two different systems of determining the “life” of your asset, the GDS and the ADS .

How Do I Calculate a Monthly House Payment for a 30-Year Fixed Loan?

As an example, say you bought a copy machine for your business with a cost basis of $3,500 and a salvage value of $500. To arrive at your annual depreciation deduction, you would first subtract $500 from $3,500. The result, $600, would be your annual straight-line depreciation deduction. This method determines the full number of periods straight line amortization in the schedule and allocates expenses based on the proportional period amount. When a straight-line method is used, purchase expenses are amortized over the scheduled term based on the start date, end date, and method chosen. The effective interest method results in a different amount of interest expense and amortization each year.

• The table below shows how this example bond would be accounted for over the full 10-year period.
• However, because prevailing interest rates are 11 percent, the bond is only appealing to investors if sold at a discount.
• With that in mind, you can plan your finances around a $2,029.01 monthly mortgage payment for the next 30 years, assuming you do not attempt to pay down the principal balance of your mortgage at a faster rate.
• Being able to calculate depreciation is crucial for writing off the cost of expensive purchases, and for doing your taxes properly.
• However, the latter is used when dealing with tangible assets, while the former is used for intangible assets.
• Two common situations in which straight-line amortization is applied are intangible assets such as patents and bond premiums and discounts.
• He holds a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Arts in English from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and a Master of Business Administration from Harvard University.

Interest Expense9,516Interest Payable8,000Bond Discount1,516Under straight line method, amortization of bond discount do not vary over the term of the bond. Saving the vendor bill creates four amortization schedules, each to amortize $400.00 over full four periods from August through December inclusive. When you count the number of periods that have amortization amounts, the total is five periods, but two are partial periods. The method set on the amortization template for each line determines the amounts amortized during each period. The table below shows how this example bond would be accounted for over the full 10-year period. Note that the only static figure is the amount of cash interest — interest expense and amortization are different in every single year. Over time, the carrying amount of the bonds is slowly reduced to $100,000 due to the amortization of the premium each year.

Benefits of Straight-Line Amortization

This method is most commonly applied to intangible assets, since these assets are not usually consumed at an accelerated rate, as can be the case with some tangible assets. The straight-line depreciation method is a type of tax depreciation that an asset owner can elect to deduct the cost of the asset over the property’s useful life evenly. By dividing the difference between an asset’s cost and its expected salvage value by the number of years the asset is expected to be used, the asset owner can get the amount of the depreciation each year. For example, due to rapid technological advancements, a straight line depreciation method may not be suitable for an asset such as a computer. A computer would face larger depreciation expenses in its early useful life and smaller depreciation expenses in the later periods of its useful life, due to the quick obsolescence of older technology. It would be inaccurate to assume a computer would incur the same depreciation expense over its entire useful life.

To calculate straight line basis, take the purchase price of an asset and then subtract the salvage value, its estimated sell-on value when it is no longer expected to be needed. Then divide the resulting figure by the total number of years the asset is expected to be useful, referred to as the useful life in accounting jargon. Balance Sheet Account Of The CompanyA balance sheet is one of the financial statements of a company that presents the shareholders’ equity, liabilities, and assets of the company at a specific point in time. It is based on the accounting equation that states that the sum of the total liabilities and the owner’s capital equals the total assets of the company. Amortize The BondWhen a company issues bonds to investors with a coupon rate that is higher than the market rate of interest, the investors may bid higher than the face value of the bond.

Straight Line Depreciation Formula

Straight line amortization is also used to calculate the monthly installments, for example, the amount that a borrower should pay every month, including interest. Residual value is the estimated value of a fixed asset at the end of its lease term or useful life. Thus every year, $10,000 will be charged in the income statement of the company for the next seven years. Interest Is PayableInterest Payable is the amount of expense that has been incurred but not yet paid.

To calculate total interest expense for the first year, we take the carrying amount of the bond and multiply it by investors’ required return of 10%. Solve for present value to get $93,855.43, or the amount investors will pay for these bonds if they want a 10% annual return, also known as a yield to maturity. Here’s how to account for a bond under annual straight line and effective interest amortization methods, and the accounting impacts of choosing one method over the other. Next, let’s assume that just prior to offering the bond to investors on January 1, the market interest rate for this bond increases to 10%. The corporation decides to sell the 9% bond rather than changing the bond documents to the market interest rate.

Straight Line Amortization

In our example, the bond discount of $3,851 results from the corporation receiving only $96,149 from investors, but having to pay the investors $100,000 on the date that the bond matures. The discount of $3,851 is treated as an additional interest expense over the life of the bonds. When the same amount of bond discount is recorded each year, it is referred to as straight-line amortization. In this example, the straight-line amortization would be $770.20 ($3,851 divided by the 5-year life of the bond). The straight line method of amortization allocates the discount equally over the life of the bond. An entry will usually be made on every interest date and if necessary, an adjusting journal entry will be made at the end of each period to record the discount amortization. With a straight-line amortization schedule, your individual monthly mortgage payments will never deviate from this amount.

• The term can also be applied to the repayment of a loan via a series of periodic payments that are in the same amount.
• This is because we paid an amount lower than the face value of the bond at issue date but will get the full face value at maturity.
• Suppose a company sells $100,000 in 10-year bonds with an annual coupon of 9% at a discount to face value.
• For example, your small business acquires a company with fair value assets of $100,000 and liabilities totaling $50,000.
• In the case of bonds, there may be additional calculations necessary, as you could purchase the bonds at a rate that’s lower or higher than their market value.
• Even though this example discusses only straight-line amortization of discount on a bond payable, amortization of bond premium only involves the same process.

Daniel is an expert in corporate finance and equity investing as well as podcast and video production. FREE INVESTMENT BANKING COURSELearn the foundation of Investment https://online-accounting.net/ banking, financial modeling, valuations and more. In cases where functional life span cannot be estimated properly, this method will not be useful.

What are realistic assumptions in the straight-line method of depreciation?

It is usually calculated using a simple formula where the total interest amount is divided by the number of accounting periods that will consist of the life of the debt. The straight-line amortization method is the simplest way to amortize a bond or loan because it allocates an equal amount of interest over each accounting period in the debt’s life. The straight line amortization formula is computed by dividing the total interest amount by the number of periods in the debt’s life. This amount will be recorded as an expense each year on the income statement. Imagine that a company issues a five-year, $100 million bond with a 10 percent coupon. However, because prevailing interest rates are 11 percent, the bond is only appealing to investors if sold at a discount. If the bond sells for 99 cents on the dollar, the company must record a discount on bonds payable liability equal to $1 million.