Understand crypto accounting under US GAAP, UK GAAP, and IFRS. Learn how FIFO, LIFO, and other methods impact crypto inventory and taxes.
Expenses are the costs incurred by a business in order to generate revenue.
In accounting, expenses are costs that are associated with the operations of a business. They can be categorized in many ways, such as direct costs (e.g., cost of goods sold), indirect costs (e.g., overhead), operating expenses (e.g., salaries, rent, utilities), non-operating expenses (e.g., interest on loans), and capital expenses (e.g., purchase of equipment or property).
In the world of cryptocurrency, expenses can take many forms as well. For instance, a cryptocurrency mining operation may have expenses related to electricity usage, equipment depreciation, internet costs, and even cooling costs. Blockchain companies might have expenses such as employee salaries, office space rent, software development costs, legal fees, and marketing expenses.
Example 1: A cryptomining company spends $10,000 on electricity and $2,000 on maintenance for its mining hardware each month. These costs are considered expenses as they are essential for the mining operations which generate the company's revenue.
Example 2: A blockchain startup incurs costs of $50,000 per month on employee salaries, $5,000 on office rent, and $10,000 on marketing activities. These are all examples of operating expenses since they are necessary for the day-to-day functioning of the business.