Definition of 'Cost Depletion'
One of two accounting methods used to allocate the costs of extracting natural resources, such as timber, minerals and oil, and to take those costs as a tax deduction. Cost depletion looks at the total amount of the resource to be extracted, how much was extracted during the tax year and the amount of money spent to extract it. The proportion of resources extracted divided by the total resources is the percentage used to help determine the deduction in that period.
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