Capital Assets

Capital assets are land, structures, equipment and intellectual property, which are used by the Federal Government and have an estimated useful life of two years or more. Capital assets exclude items acquired for resale in the ordinary course of operations or held for purpose of physical consumption such as operating materials and supplies. Capital assets may be acquired in different ways: through purchase, construction, or manufacture; through a lease-purchase or other capital lease, regardless of whether title has passed to the Federal Government; or through exchange. Capital assets include the environmental remediation of land to make it useful, leasehold improvements and land rights; assets owned by the Federal Government but located in a foreign country or held by others (such as federal contractors, state and local governments, or colleges and universities); and assets whole ownership is shared by the Federal Government with other entities.