ABSTRACT
Nature of Depreciation.—Depreciation has been variously described or defined as follows: “the decline in value-in-use of fixed tangible assets”; “expired capital outlay”; “an allocation of the entire cost of depreciable assets to the operating expenses of a series of fiscal periods.” For the railroads the Interstate Commerce Commission defines depreciation as “the loss in service value, not restored by current maintenance …. whose effect can be forecast with a reasonable approach to accuracy.” 1 For public utilities this term is described as “the loss in total intrinsic service value of a unit or item of structural property in its existing position and relationship as part of a utility plant.” 2
