Recharge

Can a recharge unit assign a piece of existing equipment, purchased with federal funds, to the recharge activity and depreciate the value of the equipment over the useful life of the equipment?

No. If the equipment was originally bought on federal funds, the recharge unit cannot depreciate the value of equipment and assign the respective costs to the recharge fund.

Can a recharge activity lease a piece of equipment and charge the lease payments to the recharge operating fund?

For capital leases, lease payments can be allocated to the recharge operating fund provided that the amount of the lease payments is roughly equal to the amount of depreciation that could have been charged for the same period and the University has title to the asset. For operational leases, the lease payments should be allocated to the recharge operating fund.

What determines whether or not an item can be assigned as equipment with depreciation allocated to a recharge account?

The University definition for equipment must be met. Presently the item must have a purchase price of at least $5,000 and a useful life of more than a year. The item must be used in the recharge activity to have its charges assigned to the respective fund.