what is amortization in ebitda 
as it relates to ebitda amortization is the gradual discounting of the book value of a company s intangible assets amortization is reported on a company s income statement intangible assets include intellectual property such as patents or trademarks as well as goodwill the bottom lineebitda can be a useful tool for comparing companies subject to disparate tax treatments and capital costs or analyzing them in situations where these are likely to change it also omits non cash depreciation costs that may not accurately represent future capital spending requirements at the same time excluding some costs while including others has opened the door to the ebitda s abuse by unscrupulous corporate managers the best defense for investors against such practices is to read the fine print reconciling the reported ebitda to net income correction april 30 2023 an earlier version of this article contained an arithmetic error in the calculation of ebitda the expected taxes were 5 million not 4 million 