

Practically, salvage value can be thought of as the amount at which a company can sell the old asset at the end of its useful life.

Net Income → The recognition of depreciation on the income statement results in some “noise” when evaluating the net income as recorded on the income statement and this is why the cash flow statement is also necessary to evaluate a company’s performance.Tax Shield → While depreciation is treated as a non-cash expense and added back on the cash flow statement, the expense reduces the tax burden for the period since it is tax-deductible.Non-Cash Item → The depreciation expense is added back on the cash flow statement (CFS) as it is a non-cash expense – this means that there was no actual cash outflow despite depreciation being classified as an expense on the income statement and reducing earnings.

The concept of depreciation is an important consideration in order to understand the true cash flow profile of a company since it is a non-cash expense and can often be affected by discretionary assumptions by the company (i.e. The capital expenditure and the associated cash outflow with the purchase of the fixed asset are recognized across the time span wherein it is generating revenue, instead of recognizing the entire capital expenditure in a single period. a capital expenditure (Capex) – rather than record the purchase as an expense in the current period is a more accurate representation of the operational performance of the company. In theory, the decision to capitalize the fixed asset purchase – i.e. The objective of the matching principle is to recognize expenses in the same period as when the coinciding revenue was generated. GAAP, the recognition of depreciation is mandatory because of the matching principle in accrual accounting.
