That Thing Which the Accountant Calls Income.

Abstract This article says that income in general, is a variable concept concerning which there has been considerable debate without a great deal of final agreement. Within the framework of historical accrual accounting, however, if allowance is made for variations in procedure and for different methods of computation, the concept of income appears to be accepted as indicative of something fairly specific. There is ground for believing, nevertheless, that this is not an entirely satisfactory concept of the income situation. In economics and in the vernacular the term "income" usually refers to goods and services. The emphasis is upon assets, often more specifically upon cash, rather than upon the resulting technical accounting increase of a specific equity. Expense and revenue items, in their deeper meaning, have reference to cash effects. From the standpoint of historical accounting, gross income, in this sense, is the amount of cash received and to be received as a result of the period's sales.