In the 21st century, the role of intangible assets will become even more important. If China wants to take the initiative in future competition, it must vigorously develop and protect its own intangible asset resources, and a key part of this is scientific and accurate assessment of intangible assets. However, since traditional valuation methods, especially the cost method, are only for the purpose of compensating intangible assets, the use of valuation results is greatly restricted and cannot satisfy the growing need to provide a fair value scale for intangible asset transactions. need. In order to promote the development, utilization and protection of intangible assets in our country, based on the cost characteristics of intangible assets, the author proposed a new method for intangible asset evaluation - the compound cost method.

1. Cost characteristics of intangible assets. The cost of intangible assets includes the costs of developing or acquiring all materialized labor and living labor during the holding period. The cost characteristics of intangible assets, especially in terms of development and formation costs, are obviously different from tangible assets.

(1) Incompleteness. Under current accounting standards, whether various expenses corresponding to the acquisition and construction of intangible assets are included in the cost of intangible assets is subject to the capitalization of expenses. In the process of enterprise production and operation, scientific research expenses are generally generated in a relatively balanced manner and serve production and operation relatively stably. Therefore, my country's current financial system generally lists scientific research expenses from the current operating expenses instead of first deducting scientific research expenses. The results are capitalized as expenses, and then compensated from production and operating expenses through depreciation or amortization of intangible assets. This method is simple and feasible, generally consistent with reality, and does not affect the reproduction of intangible assets. But in this way, the cost of intangible assets reflected in the company's accounting books will be incomplete, and the existence of a large number of off-book intangible assets is a fact that cannot be ignored. On the other hand, even the cost accounting of intangible assets for which expenditures are capitalized in accordance with national regulations is generally incomplete. Because of the inherent particularity of knowledge assets, a large amount of upfront costs, such as training, basic development or related experiments, are often not included in the cost of the knowledge asset, but are compensated through other means.

(2) Weak correspondence. The creation of intellectual assets goes through a long process of basic research, applied research and process development, and the emergence of results has a certain degree of randomness, contingency and correlation. Sometimes this kind of special thing happens: some results appear accidentally after a research fails, and it is obviously not reasonable for it to bear all the research costs; or on the accumulation of results of a large number of prior research (whether successful or failed) , often may generate a series of knowledge assets, and it is difficult to determine whether these research results should bear the cost of advanced research. Therefore, it is difficult to calculate the costs of developing intangible assets on a one-to-one basis.

(3) Virtuality. Since the cost of intangible assets has the characteristics of incompleteness and weak correspondence, the cost of intangible assets is often relative. In particular, the connotation of some intangible assets has far exceeded the meaning of its external form. Such intangible assets The cost is only nominal. For example, for trademarks, the cost accounting includes trademark design fees, registration fees, advertising fees, etc. The connotation of a trademark is to indicate the inherent quality and reputation of the product. This is the fundamental reason why one kind of trademark is "loud" than another. This intangible asset actually includes the special technology, formula and years of experience accumulated in the product, while the cost of trademark formation itself is only symbolic (or virtual).

2. Composite costing method. From the above description of the cost characteristics of intangible assets, it is not difficult to see that using the traditional cost method to evaluate an intangible asset is flawed. The problem is that part of the cost of the intangible asset is used to replace the value of the intangible asset. Therefore, The value of intangible assets is not fully reflected. To this end, after years of painstaking research, the author proposed a new method - the compound cost method. The so-called compound cost method means that when evaluating an intangible asset, it not only considers its historical cost or replacement cost, but also considers scarcity and its utility. Expressed as a formula:

Replacement cost of intangible assets = (utility coefficient/scarcity coefficient) × labor volume

From the above formula, it can be seen that the value of intangible assets is determined by three factors That is, utility, scarcity and labor volume are determined simultaneously. Let’s talk about how to determine these three variables.

(1) Amount of labor.

Because intangible assets have unique existence, in theory, the minimum amount of labor contained in a batch of intangible assets with the same function that is successfully developed first should be used. The amount of labor consumed by unsuccessful intangible assets can only be included in various expenses, but not in the value of the intangible assets. Among intangible assets that have been successfully developed, only those involving the minimum amount of labor (utility and scarcity are not considered yet) are most likely to be successfully traded, and their value is easily recognized. However, it is difficult to determine this minimum labor quantity. In practice, the appraiser should do his best to collect similar cost information, select the minimum labor quantity after screening and comparison. If it is really difficult to find relevant cost information, you can also use historical cost or replacement cost obtained by the traditional cost method instead, because the intangible assets used for evaluation usually have significant excess (extra) profits, and the amount of labor is higher than the intangible assets. The effect in value was not significant.

(2) Utility and utility coefficient. The utility of intangible assets can be divided into utility of means of production and utility of means of living. The utility of production means is measured by improving labor productivity and promoting the progress of social productivity. This can be calculated based on some economic indicators in actual economic work, such as utility coefficient = expected output/current output (or expected sales/current sales, expected selling price/current selling price). Since living materials are rarely used in the asset evaluation industry, they will not be discussed here. Utility plays a stipulated role in the amount of labor. The utility coefficient is usually represented by 0, 0.1, 0.2,...1, 1.1, 1.2..., and the larger the coefficient, the greater the utility. The utility coefficient of intangible assets can be determined according to the size of its effect by referring to the suggestions of experts and specialized technicians. If an expert believes that the use of an intangible asset can increase output 100 times, the utility coefficient can be set as 100.

(3) Scarcity and scarcity coefficient. Scarcity refers to the scarcity of intangible assets and the supply and demand relationship of intangible assets in the market. It is usually expressed by the scarcity coefficient, which exists in the range of 0.01 to 1. Theoretically, the scarcity coefficient has a value of 0, but when it is 0, it has little practical significance. Therefore, the minimum value here is 0.01, and 1 represents the scarcity coefficient when supply and demand are balanced. A smaller coefficient indicates scarcity, and vice versa. The scarcity coefficient can be determined in practice based on the proportion of the intangible asset in the market for similar intangible assets. If the intangible asset creates a new era for a type of intangible asset, that is, it creates a change from scratch, then its coefficient can be set to 0.01; if the market for the intangible asset is nearly saturated, the scarcity value should be The coefficient is set to 1 because the market no longer lacks this intangible asset at this time.