Defining Unadjusted Basis

The unadjusted Basis is defined as the original cost to purchase any asset. This cost doesn’t only include the property's price but the initial amount paid to acquire the asset, the expenses made, and the liabilities put into purchasing the asset.

It is the basis of the property or an asset to figure out the profit on the sale of the property. The unadjusted basis is the original cost of property without regard to Salvage Value. In other words, the unadjusted basis is the original purchase price of the property or an asset that is used to calculate its subsequent depreciation.

In this, it doesn’t include the Deduction of salvage value because it leads to reducing the amount of depreciation expense. The unadjusted basis is used with the accelerated methods because it accelerates the assumed amount of a property and gives the largest possible amount of depreciation expenses.

Explaining Unadjusted Basis

To understand the unadjusted basis in a better way, let’s understand the adjusted basis first. The adjusted basis is defined as the adjustment made on the original price of a property over time. On the contrary, the unadjusted basis is a term based on the Accounting nomenclature and is similar to the concept of cost basis.

It is the amount or value assigned to any asset or property in the beginning. It includes the price of the property, the amount or asset the purchaser gave to the seller as part of the transaction, the liabilities assumed to acquire the asset, and at last, the expenses that happened for purchasing the property.

Those purchase expenses can be commissions, fees, transfer Taxes, insurances, paper works, survey costs and other miscellaneous expenses. The unadjusted basis is also considered as the starting point for determining the depreciation for any asset or property.

It is the same as the plant or piece of any Manufacturing equipment in Accelerated Depreciation methods. This method allows the deduction of higher expenses from the unadjusted basis during the first year of purchase and decreases the expenses cost as depreciated item ages.

The reason why the actual cost of property is usually referred to as the unadjusted basis, or cost basis, is because changes and adjustments can be made to the basis over time, but not to the actual cost. When it comes to the Real Property, the basis is calculated as the cost plus any improvements. It is not necessary that one can count this only on the purchased property, but also on the rental properties.