expenses which are incurred in producing a commodity or rendering a service, but which cannot conveniently be attributed to individual units of production or service. Examples are heating, lighting etc. Glossary of Business Terms
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The expenses of a business that are not attributable directly to the production or sale of goods. Bloomberg Financial Dictionary
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a company's general costs for activities not related to particular products:
• Such costs count as an overhead of the business, and VAT on them is deductible.
• Because overhead costs won't increase, profit margins at the hospital should expand.
• It spends about 17 cents to sell $1 of its goods, among the highest overheads in the tire industry.
• Firms have centralized buying to reduce both cost of goods and administrative overheads.
diˌrect ˈoverhead ACCOUNTING
a cost such as rent or electricity that is included in the total cost of making a particular product when calculating costs
Financial and business terms. 2012.