There are certain types of revenue expenditures which cannot be treated as such in the accounting period in which they are incurred. Instead they have to be spread over a number of accounting periods and the carried forward (unutilized) amount is, for the time being treated as capital item. Such expenditure is technically termed as deferred revenue expenditure. It is defined as that class of revenue expenditure which is incurred during an accounting period, but is applicable either wholly or in part to future periods. It is true in those cases where the amount of revenue expenditure incurred during an accounting period is heavy and abnormal and it is likely that its benefit will last for a numbers of years. The unexpired portion is treated as temporary capital expenditure. As a rule an item falling under this heading is a fictitious asset i.e., although it is shown on the assets side if the balance sheet, it is not really an asset at all.