Note: Effective July 1, 2005, this policy has been replaced. It is provided here as a courtesy for University staff who purchased equipment through June 30. For equipment purchased July 1 and after, return to the current V-12.2 Definition of Equipment.

The Federal Government defines equipment, in both OMB (Office of Management and Budget) Circulars A-21 and A-110, as an item of non-expendable, tangible personal property, having a useful life of more than one year and an acquisition cost which equals or exceeds the lesser of the capitalization level established by the recipient organization for financial statement purposes, or $5,000. Since the University's definition of equipment must conform to the federal government definition, it has established a capitalization level of $2,000 and a useful life of more than one year (including fabricated equipment and purchased computer software, but excluding computer software developed internally).

Each item of equipment acquired will be assigned a serially numbered University tag. Non-capitalized items (valued at less than $2,000) of equipment may be identified with an unnumbered tag furnished by the Property Management Office. These tags will be marked "Property of The University of Iowa." University equipment that is federally titled must also be tagged with a government label that indicates federal ownership and the accountable federal agency.
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