Bookkeeping and the year-end accounts

Accounting German has a construction that English can only paraphrase, and abschreiben shows it best. Put zu in front of a present participle, use the result as an adjective, and it names something that must or may be done: der abzuschreibende Betrag is the amount to be depreciated, die zu bildende Rückstellung the provision that has to be set up, die zu aktivierenden Kosten the costs that are to be capitalised. With a separable verb the zu slides inside, between prefix and stem, exactly as it does in the infinitive abzuschreiben; with an inseparable verb it stays in front, as in die zu verbuchende Rechnung. The participle then takes the ordinary adjective endings. English needs a relative clause or a “to be” for every one of these, which is why a German audit report can look so dense: a whole obligation fits in front of its noun.