Depreciation as a source of investment resources of an agricultural enterprise

Purpose. The aim of the article is generalization of scientists' approaches to the recognition of depreciation as a source of investment resources of agricultural enterprises and development of practical recommendations on the use of depreciation as a component of their own financial resources in order to recreate the material and technical base of farms in the corporate sector of the agrarian economy. Methodology of research. The following general scientific methods are applied in the course of the study: analysis and synthesis of generalized opinions of scientists on the treatment of categories of “depreciation” and “amortization”, concretization and abstraction – in the development of measures to create a unit depreciation and investment fund, systematic and complex approaches to obtaining evidence the roles and locations of depreciation, as sources of investment resources of agricultural enterprises, as well as abstract and logical methods of research – in determining the economic feasibility of indexing fixed assets. Findings. It has been proved that the formation of depreciation charges by agricultural enterprises is an important instrument for stimulating investment activity. It is proposed to exempt from the income tax part of the taxable profit that participates in the formation of the investment financing fund, in the form of indexation of accumulated depreciation, taking into account the level of inflation. It is established that depreciation can be considered in the market economy as a source of financing of capital investments on the basis of its financial component – real funds in the proceeds from the sale of goods (products, works, services), which should be accumulated for the purposeful use. Originality. The feasibility of introducing a production method of depreciation for 4-5 groups of fixed assets in crop production in the formation of costs to determine profit before tax. In order to increase the role of depreciation as a source of updating and modernization of agricultural capital, it is advisable to: develop a new tax strategy, in particular, preferential taxation, introduce an additional tax burden when using depreciation not for the intended purpose; to pursue an active policy of accelerated depreciation and to introduce methods of state control over the targeted use of depreciation; to use the instruments of state support of accumulation of depreciation in the form of real money in deposit or special accounts with banks; to create regional unitary amortization and investment funds with state participation. Practical value. The proposed method of formation of the fund will allow enterprises to store depreciation resources that are directed to reproduction of fixed capital in their indexed value terms that is, taking into account inflation, which will facilitate the conduct of extended reproduction of production by modernization of the technical base. Obviously, such an approach to the formation of a depreciation accumulation fund is possible only with the break-even operation of agricultural enterprises. In the case of an unprofitable operation of the enterprise, depreciation deductions are directed to cover the losses and have no purpose. This means that depreciation for the recovery of property, plant and equipment is absent, which leads to the conclusion about the crisis. Key words: depreciation; investment; agricultural enterprise; reproduction; fixed assets.