The term encompasses all kinds of property, movable or immovable, tangible or intangible, fixed or circulating.
Land and building, plant and machinery, motorcar, furniture, jewellery, route permits, goodwill, tenancy rights, patents, trademarks, shares, debentures, mutual funds, zero-coupon bonds are some examples of what is considered capital assets.
[1][2] In their textbook on the financial accounting, authors Clyde P. Stickney and Roman L. Weil[9] advise that the term should be avoided except in tax accounting in the US private context, to counter its usage in other contexts vaguely.
[9] Several public sector standards in global use, notably triple bottom line accounting as defined by ICLEI for world cities, require that employees or the environment or something else be treated as a capital asset.
In this context, it means managers have a responsibility to maintain, and to report changes in value as gains or losses of the capital assets.