ASSET REVALUATION AND COST BASIS: CAPITAL REVALUATION IN CORPORATE FINANCIAL REPORTS

The paper is a historical study of the asset revaluation movement and the subsequent establishment of the cost basis in the United States. A survey of the corporate report leads to a generalization that the asset revaluations were fundamentally the adjustments of equity capital triggered by corporate financial policies. The concept of quasi-reorganization then was developed to ensure that the capital revaluation was undertaken for the right reasons. This newly developed concept made the revaluation of equity and assets less useful from the standpoint of corporate financial management. Asset revaluation was thus replaced by the cost principle.