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All marketable debt securities are held at cost on a company's balance sheet as a current asset, until a gain or loss is realized upon the sale of the debt instrument. Marketable debt securities are held as short-term investments and are expected to be sold within one year. If a debt security is expected to be held for longer than one year, it should be classified as a long-term investment on the company's balance sheet.
A time frame for investing in which an asset is held for one to three years. The measure of a long term time frame can vary depending on the asset held or the investment objective. For tax purposes, assets held for less than a year and sold for a gain are subject to a higher tax than that of the long-term capital gains rate. In business accounting measures, short term is a period of time of less than 12 months.