CHAPTER III: Expenditure

For the application of the provisions of 19° of Article L. 72-103-2, the territorial authority of Martinique proceeds with the depreciation of its fixed assets, including those received on disposal or assignment:

1° Intangible;

2° Tangible, with the exception of road networks and installations for which depreciation is optional.

This depreciation does not apply to fixed assets owned by the local authority and which are handed over on assignment or at disposal, nor to land other than deposit land, nor to collections and works of art.

The depreciation allowances for these assets are liquidated on the basis of the gross value, less the residual value of the fixed asset. The straight-line method is applied. However, the local authority may adopt a declining-balance or variable depreciation method by deliberation.

The depreciation periods for fixed assets, which must correspond to their probable useful life, are set for each asset or each category of asset by the deliberative assembly, with the exception of:

- study costs and insertion costs not followed by realisation, depreciated over a maximum period of five years;

- research and development costs, depreciated over a maximum period of five years in the event of the project's success and immediately, in their entirety, in the event of failure;

- patents, depreciated over the duration of the privilege from which they benefit or over the actual period of their use if shorter ;

- capital grants paid, depreciated over a maximum period of five years when the grant finances movable property, equipment or studies, thirty years when it finances real estate or installations and forty years when it finances infrastructure projects of national interest; investment aid for companies not falling into any of these categories is depreciated over a maximum period of five years.

A depreciation schedule that has been started must be continued until it is completed, unless the asset is sold, assigned, made available, reformed or destroyed. The depreciation schedule is amended following the recognition or reversal of a depreciation or if there is a significant change in the conditions of use of the asset. The beneficiary of the provision or assignment continues to depreciate the asset in accordance with the initial depreciation schedule or in accordance with its own rules, defined by this article.

The deliberative assembly may set a unit threshold below which fixed assets of little value or which are consumed very quickly are depreciated over one year. The corresponding deliberation is sent to the public accountant and may not be modified during the same financial year.

The deliberative assembly may instruct the authorising officer to determine the depreciation period for an asset within the minimum and maximum periods that it has set for the category to which the asset belongs.