When you sell an asset before the end of its useful life, you might make an accounting gain or a loss on that sale. For example if you sell the company computer for £400 and at the time after depreciation it is worth £300, the gain of £100 will be allocated to this account.

Gain - Say you sold an asset on eBay for £800 and the carrying value is £600 at the time you sell it. You'll have a £200 gain on sale.

Loss - Say you sold an asset on eBay for £500 and the carrying value is £600 at the time you sell it. You'll have a £100 loss on sale.

Depreciation is not considered a loss on an asset.

Where you received tax relief on the original acquisition of the asset you will not get tax relief on the accounts write off but the income will be taxed. See tax tips for further.

Depending on the asset you may have a capital allowance balancing event - meaning you get a full write off of the remaining part of the asset that hasn't previously received tax relief, or you will have capital gain to report.