Business and Personal Finance Dictionary

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• OFFSET
  
  is: a. In banking, the deduction by a debtor from a claim or demand of a debt or obligation. Such an offset is based upon a counterclaim against the party making the original claim. Example: Seller makes a claim or files a lawsuit asking for $20,000 from Debtor as the final payment in purchase of a restaurant; as part of his defense Debtor claims an offset of $10,000 for alleged funds owed by Seller for repairs Debtor made on property owned by Seller, thus reducing the claim of Seller to $10,000; b. in accounting, the amount equaling or counterbalancing another amount on the opposite side of the same ledger or the ledger of another account; c. in securities, the elimination of a long or short position by making an opposite transaction. See also OFFSET ACCOUNT.
  
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