what is a revaluation surplus 
a revaluation surplus is an equity account that reflects the increase in the fair value of an asset over its previous book value note that these are unrealized gains so cannot be used to distribute dividends the bottom linein accounting revaluation reserves on a company s balance sheet are used to record the changing value of long term assets this generally applies to currency sensitive assets and is recorded by debiting or crediting an offsetting expense depending on the change in value 