Capital Reserve

The capital reserve is the reserve created out of the company's profits generated from its non-operating activities during a period and is retained to finance the company's long-term project or write off its capital expenses in the future.

A capital reserve is an account on the balance sheet to prepare the company for unforeseen events like inflation, instability, or the need to expand the business or get into a new and urgent project.

• It works in quite a different way. When a company sells off its assets and makes a profit, a company can transfer the amount to capital reserve.
• Since a company sells many assets and shares and can’t always make profits, it is used to mitigate any capital losses or any other long-term contingencies.
• It has nothing to do with the trading oroperational activities of the business. It is created out of non-trading activities and thus it can never be an indicator of the operational efficiency of the business.
• ·       It has nothing to do with the trading or

• Capital reserve refers to a type of reserve that a company set-asides from its profits, which cannot be distributed as dividends to shareholders. Instead, it is kept to fund the company's long-term project or write off the capital expenses later.
• It is an account on the balance sheet to prepare the company for unpredictable events such as instability, inflation, or the requirement to extend the business or enter a new and urgent project.
• It is an excellent finance source for a company's long-term project. Moreover, a company not interested in funding from external sources, such as debt, term loans, etc., may only partially utilize the reserve to fund the new project.

Instead of taking a business perspective, let’s first consider an individual perspective.

Let’s say that you would like to buy land in the future. So, you begin to set aside some money, sell off old stuff at your home, sell off the old car you have, and set aside some money from your income. And you create one saving account to save all of the money you gathered for the new land. You’re not entitled to do anything with that money other than buying the land for yourself in the future.

Now, let’s extend a similar example to businesses.

If a company decides to build a new office building, they need capital. And they don’t want to loan a huge amount from outside as the cost of capital, in that case, would be huge. So, they plan to build a new building by creating a capital reserve. They decide to sell off the lands and old assets of the company. And then the money received from these transactions is transferred to the capital reserve. Since the company is not entitled to pay any dividend to the shareholders out of their reserve, they can use the entire amount for building a new office building for the company.

• Sometimes, it is not created for any particular long-term project. Rather when a company feels that they need to be prepared for any economic instability, inflation, recession, or cut-throat competition, they can set aside money from the profits they make on selling off assets or from purchasing a small company and can create a reserve.
• Capital reserve accounting can also be used for mitigating any capital losses. Since the profits on the sale of assets are not always received in the monetary value, they are caught in the books of the accounts. It is similar to the losses on the sale of assets. So, using these reserves, the company can set off capital losses.

For example, let’s say that MNC Company has made a profit of $20,000 on the sale of an old fixed asset. But, it also has expected that they would incur a loss of $18,000 for the sale of old machinery because it has almost become obsolete.

For example, let’s say that an MNC Company has made a profit of $20,000 on selling an old So, MNC Company quickly decides to create a reserve of $18,000 out of the profit of $20,000 they have made from the selling of an old fixed asset and can be prepared to write off the loss of $18,000.

So, MNC Company quickly decides to create a reserve of $18,000 out of the profit of $20,000 they have made from selling an old fixed asset and can be prepared to write off the loss of $18,000.

But, it also has expected that they would incur a loss of $18,000 for the sale of old machinery because it has almost become obsolete.

So, it’s clear that capital reserve accounting is a great source for financing any company's long-term project. A company that isn’t very keen one funding from external sources (like debt, term loans, etc.) can use this reserve to finance its new project fully

This has been a guide to What is Capital Reserve in Accounting? Here we discuss its Capital Reserve meaning, examples, and its exceptions. You may also go through the following recommended articles on accounting –

• Capital Appreciation
• Definition of Marginal Cost of Capital
• Revenue Reserve Definition
• IFRS vs Indian GAAP
• Commitments and Contingencies