Fixed assets consist of a subset of produced assets (mostly machinery, equipment, buildings or other structures) that are used repeatedly or continuously in production over periods of time of more than one year.
Aside from dwellings and other buildings and structures, machinery and equipment, the European system of national and regional accounts explicitly includes the following within fixed assets: land improvements, weapons systems (however not single-use items such as ammunition), cultivated biological and animal resources yielding repeat products, intellectual property rights (e.g. the results of research and development,computer software, literary and artistic originals) and mineral exploration.
In national accounts, fixed assets (AN.11) are a distinct category from inventories (AN.12), valuables (AN.13) and non-produced non-financial assets (AN.2, for example land).