Tangible Assets: Assets of a physical nature. Examples include buildings, motor vehicles, plant and equipment, fixtures and fittings. See Intangible assets.

Tangible Personal Business Property: Depreciable operating assets of a business, other than real property, including machinery, furniture and fixtures, automobiles and trucks, and equipment.

Tax Rate: The amount of tax stated in terms of a unit of the tax base.

Taxes: Compulsory charges levied by a government to finance services for the common benefit.

Term Bonds: Bonds that mature in one lump sum at a specified future date.

Three Column Cash Book: A journal which deals with the day to day cash and bank transactions of a business. The side of a transaction which relates directly to the cash or bank account is usually balanced within the journal and used as a part of the nominal ledger when compiling a balance sheet (i.e. only the side which details the sale or purchase needs to be posted to the nominal ledger).

Time Period (or Periodicity) Concept: The idea that the life of a business is divided into distinct and relatively short time periods so that accounting information can be timely.

Times Interest Earned Ratio: Ratio that indicates the company's margin above the fixed interest charged to be paid to creditors; calculated by dividing income before interest and income taxes by interest expense.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): The real amount an asset will cost. Example: An accounting application retails at $1000. Support - which is mandatory, costs a further $200 per annum. Assuming the software will be in use for 5 years, TCO will be $2000 (1000+5x200=2000).

Trademark: A word, phrase, symbol, design, or combination thereof, that identifies and distinguishes the source of goods or services of one party from those of another.

Trading Account: An account which shows the gross profit of a manufacturing or retail business.

Trading Securities: Debt and equity securities purchased with the intent of selling them should the need for cash arise or to realize short-term gains.

Transaction: Two or more entries made in a journal which when looked at together reflect an original document such as a sales invoice or purchase receipt.

Transaction Group: Recurring transaction due together periodically, such as monthly rent and phone bills.

Transportation Costs: Costs of transferring merchandise into or out of a firm.

Trial Balance: A list of the balances of the accounts in a ledger kept by double entry, with the debt and credit balances shown in separate columns. If the totals of the debt and credit columns are equal or if their net balance agrees with a control account, the ledger from which the figures are taken is said to be in balance.

Treasury Stock: Issued stock that has subsequently been reacquired by the corporation.

Turnover: The income of a business over a period of time (usually a year).