What is Cash-on-Cash Return? 

A cash-on-cash return is a financial metric used to calculate cash income earned on the sum of cash invested in property of a company. It allows the cash flow assessment from the income-generating assets of a company. 

Cash on Cash Return = Annual Pre-tax Cash Flow / Total Cash Invested

The ratio generated from these calculations is mainly used in transactions related to commercial real estate to assess investments performance. The earned total cash is based on the cash flow annual pre-tax. The financial instrument is sometimes called cash yield on property investment.

How Does Cash-on-Cash Return Work?

The cash-on-cash return provides investors and owners of businesses with business plan analysis for two things; Potential cash distributions from the investment and property. Cash-on-cash is ideal and often used by those individuals and businesses looking forward to long-term debt borrowing. Note that when there is debt involved in a transaction related to real estate, just as it is with commercial estates, the exact cash return on the investment will be different from the standard return on investment.

Why Does Cash-On-Cash Return Matter?

Cash-on-cash return is a quick way of investors determining whether or not the assets qualify for more analysis or review. For investors seeking properties with paramount cash flow, can use this financial instrument to determine whether a property is showing instant property equity or is undervalued. Note that in such a scenario, investors are generally required to make principal and debt service payments since they used debt to service part of the asset. For this reason, the cash-on-cash returns figure will have a lower figure. 

Cash-On-Cash Return vs. Standard Return on Investment

Cash-on-cash return measures the return on the actual cash put in the investment and provides an analysis that is more precise on the performance of an investment. Standard return on investment, on the other hand, puts into consideration the total return on investment.

Cash-On-Cash Return Limitations

• It is not possible to consider a tax situation of an individual investor given that the calculation is purely done before tax cash flow, relative to the sum invested. Such particulars are likely to influence the investments desirability. However, if an investor wants to defer taxes for an extended period of time, he or she can deduct a significant Capital Cost Allowance to achieve that.
• The cash-on-cash returns formula does account for any depreciation or appreciation. So, where it happens to be a capitals return, the formula will falsely show a higher profit because the yield of cash is not income.
• Since cash-on-cash happens to be a simple interest calculation, it ignores the compounding interest effect. The implication this has on investors is that there is likely to be superiority in the investment with a lower compound interests nominal rate compared to that with higher cash-on-cash return investment.
• The cash-on-cash returns also do not account for the risk to do with the underlying property.
• An investor will require accurate adjusted taxable incomes depictions in order to accurately address the amount of tax payment saved via depreciation, including other losses.

Related Topics

• Trend Analysis of Financial Statements
• Common-Size Analysis (Vertical Analysis) of Financial Statements
• Common-Size Financial Statement
• Net Dollar Retention
• Horizontal Analysis
• Per Share Basis
• Profitability Ratios
• Gross Margin Ratio
• Profit Margin
• After Tax Profit Margin
• Return on Assets
• Total Shareholder Return
• Cash on Cash Return
• Earnings Per Share
• Diluted Earnings Per Share
• Asset Turnover Ratio
• Berry Ratio
• Break-Even Analysis
• Liquidity Ratio
• Current ratio  (Working Capital Ratio)
• Working Ratio
• Quick Ratio
• Quick Assets
• Days Sales Outstanding
• Cash Ratio (Operating Cash Flow Ratio)
• Receivables turnover ratio (often converted to average collection period)
• Accounts Payable Turnover Ratio
• Inventory turnover ratio (often converted to average sale period)
• Solvency (Coverage Ratios)
• Leverage Ratio (Debt Ratio)
• Asset Coverage Ratio
• Debt to Equity
• Debt to Income Ratio
• Debt Coverage Ratio
• Times Interest Earned
• Market Capitalization
• Price to Equity Ratio
• Book-To-Market Ratio
• Price to Earnings Ratio
• Price to Earnings Growth (PEG) Ratio
• Price to Earnings Growth Payback Ratio
• CAPE Ratio
• Price to Cash Flow Ratio
• Capital Maintenance
• Book to Bill Ratio
• Asset Turnover Ratio
• Plowback Ratio 
• Days Inventory Outstanding
• Days Payable Outstanding
• Days Sales Outstanding
• Non-financial Performance Measures: The Balance Scorecard