Imputed costs

Under imputed costs are understood in business administration and accounting cost categories , where no or no equal high costs facing. Imputed costs are only calculated, they are actually not paid.

While financial accounting (external accounting) considers expenses and income, cost and performance accounting (internal accounting) records costs and services. The cost type calculation comes from the delimitation of expenses to costs and takes into account all costs, especially imputed costs , e.g. B. Equity Interest.

General

According to Erich Kosiol , the pair of terms “imputed costs” is a pleonasm , since costs are by their nature always imputed. It signals that these costs are not real pagatorial costs, such as personnel costs , which are offset by actual expenditure. Rather, they are used for internal company calculation purposes . The “imputed” attribute thus indicates that the relevant costs are only taken into account for the purposes of price calculation and are therefore purely fictitious. Because it is usually not enough to base the price calculation on the profit and loss account (the pagatorial result), but also based on the imputed costs from the financial accounting . These must be offset - unaffected by commercial and tax regulations - so that the actual consumption of production factors is taken into account in the cost calculation.

species

Since Erich Kosiol, imputed costs have been divided into the main groups additional costs and other costs .

To Surcharges are when the imputed costs facing no pagatorischer effort. Additional costs are set in-house in addition to the pagatorial costs. They are used as a basis for the consumption or use of goods for which there is no effort and therefore no expenditure; Kosiol describes them as "cost-free costs" ( basic costs ).

Imputed entrepreneur's wages : Arises in the case of fully liable managing directors of partnerships and sole proprietorships as the difference between the actual withdrawals and the fictitious managing director's salary customary in the market. According to § 121 Abs. 1 HGB he is initially entitled to a share of 4% of his capital share of the profit ( interest share ), the remaining balance is to be distributed among the shareholders "by head" ( profit share ; § 121 Abs. 3 HGB). A sensible entrepreneur will expect a standard market remuneration for his own work and will calculate his prices accordingly. This is taken into account by the imputed entrepreneur's wages.

Imputed rents and leases: Production facilities, warehouses or administrative buildings belonging to the company or entrepreneur would cost rent or lease interest if they were rented or leased by third parties. In order to eliminate this cost advantage, rents and leases are included in the calculation.

There are other costs
if there are corresponding pager types of costs, but they differ in amount from the actual expenditure. The most common application of the other costs is the depreciation , if the calculated depreciation deviates from the commercial depreciation. This can be the case if the actual wear and tear is higher than that under commercial law, because for the latter, for reasons of accounting policy or tax law, different depreciation strategies have to be followed.
- Imputed depreciation : the paid depreciation is based on the regulations for the commercial and tax balance sheet . For tax purposes, depreciation is regularly calculated from the historical acquisition or production cost . However, if the replacement costs increase, this depreciation is insufficient to finance replacement purchases. Conservation of the substance is then not possible. Therefore, instead of the historical acquisition costs, one chooses the replacement costs as the assessment basis for depreciation for the price calculation.
- Imputed risks : The expense for warranties is taken into account in a pager, but only up to the limit permitted by commercial and tax law. Any other costs going beyond this and other uninsured risks are taken into account as imputed risks.
- Imputed return on equity : In the paid calculation, only the interest on borrowed capital appears , so that the total capital required for operations would not bear full interest. This is offset by the imputed interest.

Business aspects

Imputed costs are offset in the cost accounting and are also included in the operating result , but have no effect in the external annual financial statements under commercial law and are therefore not recognizable there. The internal price calculation is not based on the commercial law result, but on the result of the financial accounting , where the imputed costs are recorded. The lower price limit would be calculated too low if the imputed rents and leases were not included. The internal price calculation provides the price that a company would ideally have to charge on the market for its products or services . If this price cannot be achieved for reasons of competition, the competitive price must be selected. Imputed costs should generate a fair, comparable cost structure within the framework of a profit center calculation .

According to Günter Wöhe , the imputed costs solve two tasks:

they burden the cost of the cost unit with the effective values of consumption, even if the profit and loss account that identifies or not in a different height;
they distribute aperiodic and random losses occurring in operational production through imputed risk surcharges evenly over the accounting periods as self-insurance .

literature

Lothar Haberstock : cost accounting I, introduction with questions, tasks and solutions . 4th edition. Business publisher Dr. Th. Gabler, Wiesbaden 1980, ISBN 3-470-70408-2 .
Klaus Olfert: cost accounting . 8th, revised and expanded edition. Kiehl, Ludwigshafen (Rhein) 1991, ISBN 3-470-70408-2 .
Wolfgang Kilger: Introduction to cost accounting . 3rd, revised edition. Business publisher Dr. Th. Gabler, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 3-409-21069-5 .

Individual evidence

↑ Erich Kosiol: Calculatory accounting. 1950, p. 94.
↑ Erich Kosiol: Imputed costs. In: Building Blocks of Business Administration. Volume 2: Accounting. 1953, p. 93.
↑ Hans-Peter Möller, Jochen Zimmermann, Bernd Hüfner: Revenue and cost accounting. 2005, p. 258.
↑ Günter Wöhe, Heinz Kußmaul: Fundamentals of bookkeeping and accounting technology. 2012, p. 17.

[1] Erich Kosiol: Calculatory accounting. 1950, p. 94.

[2] Erich Kosiol: Imputed costs. In: Building Blocks of Business Administration. Volume 2: Accounting. 1953, p. 93.

[3] Hans-Peter Möller, Jochen Zimmermann, Bernd Hüfner: Revenue and cost accounting. 2005, p. 258.

[4] Günter Wöhe, Heinz Kußmaul: Fundamentals of bookkeeping and accounting technology. 2012, p. 17.