Assets and Liabilities

1. Assets and liabilities are terms used in economics and accounting. Assets represent property or rights to property and liabilities are debts owed to others. Assets and liabilities together determine the wealth of an individual, a firm, or a nation.

2. An entity's wealth is often listed on a balance sheet, with assets on one side and liabilities and owner's equity on the other. However, individuals, firms, and nations have somewhat different assets and liabilities.

3. An individual's assets may include cash, bank deposits, stocks, rights to future pension payments, and a house and its contents. An individual's liabilities include, for example, a home mortgage, insurance premiums, taxes on income and property and other financial commitments.

4. The composition of assets and liabilities for a firm is different. A firm's assets may include its plant and equipment, its inventories of raw materials or goods in the process of production, or finished goods not yet delivered to customers. A firm's assets should include receivables – debts owed to the firm, perhaps for goods delivered but not yet paid for – and income from any financial assets the firm may have, such as stocks or bonds. Firms will also usually be more valuable than the sum of their assets because they expect to earn income as a result of the existence of the firm as a going concern, a unit producing goods or services for customers. This is commonly defined as goodwill and is considered an intangible asset.

5. A firm’s liabilities are its financial obligations – debts owed to suppliers or other obligations, such as outstanding tax liability. If the firm has borrowed money from a bank or issued bonds to raise money, these obligations will be listed as liabilities as well.

6. A nation has still another set of assets and liabilities. A national balance sheet will not simply be the sum of the balance sheets of individuals and firms. A nation's assets also include national capital, such as public buildings (including public libraries, royal palaces, and government offices); publicly owned parts of the transportation infrastructure; or certain natural assets, such as raw material deposits, or national forests. These items are not included on the balance sheet of any other entity.

7. Obligations and liabilities between firms and individuals in the same country will cancel out – one person's liability to pay is another person's asset. But a nation may own assets (physical or financial) overseas, and foreigners may own capital (physical or financial) within a nation. The accounting of a nation's wealth, therefore, must take account of net liabilities to the citizens, firms, and governments of other countries.

Notes:

assets and liabilities – активы и пассивы

liability – задолженность, обязательство

debt owed to – долг перед

balance sheet – бухгалтерский баланс, балансовый отчет

owner's equity – собственный капитал, капитал владельца

home mortgage – ипотечный кредит на покупку жилья

insurance premiums – страховые взносы

financial commitment – финансовые обязательства

plant and equipment – техника и оборудование, основные средства (фонды)

receivables – дебиторская задолженность, счета к получению

going concern – действующее предприятие

goodwill – «гудвилл» (деловая репутация, престиж, кадры, контакты в денежном выражении)

outstanding tax liability – непокрытые налоговые обязательства

cancel out – уравновешивать, балансировать

net liabilities – чистые пассивы