Write-off

A write-off is when someone decides that something they own isn't worth anything anymore. Let's say you have a toy car that you play with a lot and it gets really roughed up. One day, you decide that it's no longer any fun to play with, so you give it away or throw it in the trash. That toy car was written off because you decided it wasn't worth anything to you anymore.

In more grown-up situations, businesses might write off things like old equipment, vehicles, or even debts that they can't collect. This means they decide these things are no longer worth keeping on their records or trying to collect money for them. When a business writes something off, they might also get a tax break because they can count the cost of the write-off as a business expense, which lowers their taxes.

Write-offs can be seen as a way to clean up or simplify a business's records or even a person's possessions. But it's important to remember that write-offs don't magically make things disappear - they just shift who's responsible for them or how they're accounted for.