MACRS
Most businesses use a depreciation method called MACRS (Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System) in their federal income tax returns. Some small businesses also use this method in their financial statement, so they do not have to compute depreciation in several different ways. MACRS is based on the declining-balance method, but should be considered for use in financial statements only if the designated “recovery periods” and the assumption of no salvage value are reasonable. For publicly traded companies, the use of MACRS in financial statement is usually not considered to be in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles.