CHAPTER III: Expenditure

The local authority depreciates its fixed assets, including those made available or assigned:

1° Intangible;

2° Tangible, with the exception of road networks and installations for which depreciation is optional.

This depreciation does not apply to fixed assets owned by the local authority that are handed over on assignment or at disposal, nor to land and land improvements other than deposit land, nor to collections and works of art.

The depreciation allowances for these assets are calculated on the basis of the historical cost of the fixed asset and the straight-line method. However, the local authority may adopt a declining balance or variable (real) depreciation method.

The depreciation periods for tangible fixed assets are set for each asset or each category of asset by the deliberative assembly, which may refer to a scale set by order of the minister responsible for local authorities and the minister responsible for the budget, with the exception, however:

- study costs and insertion costs not followed by completion which must be amortised over a maximum period of five years;

- research and development costs amortised over a maximum period of five years in the event of the project's success and immediately, in their entirety, in the event of failure;

- patents amortised over the duration of the privilege from which they benefit or over the actual period of their use if this is shorter ;

- capital grants paid, which are depreciated over a maximum period of five years when the grant finances movable property, equipment or studies, fifteen years when it finances real estate or installations and thirty years when it finances infrastructure projects of national interest; investment aid to companies not falling into any of these categories is depreciated over a maximum period of five years.

A depreciation schedule that has been started must be continued until it is completed, unless the asset is sold, assigned, made available, reformed or destroyed. The depreciation schedule may only be modified in the event of a significant change in the conditions of use of the asset. The beneficiary of the disposal or assignment continues to depreciate the asset according to the initial depreciation schedule or in accordance with its own rules, defined by this article.

The territorial council may set a unit threshold below which fixed assets of little value or whose consumption is very rapid are depreciated over one year. The corresponding deliberation is forwarded to the Paymaster and may not be modified during the same financial year.

The deliberative assembly may instruct the authorising officer to determine the depreciation period for an asset within the minimum and maximum periods that it has set for the category to which the asset belongs.

For the local authority's school fund(s), the depreciation allowances for fixed assets, provided for and liquidated under the conditions set out in this article, constitute compulsory expenditure.