is a contra balance negative or positive 
depending on how you view the account balance a contra account balance can be negative or positive on one hand a contra asset represents a true positive amount of something in the amazon example above the company estimated roughly 1 4 billion of accounts receivable were uncollectable and that uncollectable amount is positive however that 1 4 billion is used to reduce the balance of gross accounts receivable therefore contra accounts though they represent a positive amount are used to net reduce a gross amount for this reason contra accounts are primarily seen as having negative balances because they are used to reduce the balance of another account 