Introduction
In accounting, there are principals of valuing an asset called amortization and capitalization. While getting the cost of an asset, a person considers depreciation and amortization. In the later method people subtract the salvage value of the particular asset from its cost. Amortization is the act of spreading the cost of an intangible asset over the life of that asset. The life of the asset is called the useful life. For example, manufacturers give the useful life of different assets when they make them. For example if a manufacturer gives that the useful life on a computer is 10 years the accountant has to record this in the income statement. Capitalization is the total amount of the long term debts stock and the retained earnings of a company. While the two concepts are ideas in accounting, they are very different.

Discussion
Amortization
Amortization happens over a long period of time. It can happen in two instances. One is the amortization of expenses while the other is the amortization of loans.

Amortization of expenses.
In this case, an accountant makes subtractions from the capital expenses. Capital expenses refers to the money that the company spends on equipment machinery and buildings. This money helps to ease manufacturing or production in the company in the long run (Stern np). All these assets have a certain value in the future. In amortization of theses expenses, the finance team simply subtracts the residual value of the asset from the initial cost of the asset. For example, if a machine was 50million and the patent was lasting for 25 years then the amortization expense amounts to 2million annually.

Amortization of loans.
In amortization, an individual can pay a loan over periodic payments. Amortization loans are not the same in nature as other types of loans. In an amortization loan, one portion of the amount that an individual pays services the loan while the other pays for the interest of the loan.

Capitalization
Capitalization is the total amount of the long term debts stock and the retained earnings of a company. . It is the equity of the company on the balance sheet and the debt commitment. Capitalization is an activity that helps companies when they are developing different projects. It also helps in fund expansion in a company (sec.gov 22). Capitalization is the combined value of a company. In a business perspective, market capitalization is the number of shares that re available or outstanding X the market price of the shares. For example if a firm has 30000 outstanding shares and each share is 10 dollars each, the market capitalization is 30000 x 10 = 300,000.

Capitalizing and amortizing assets
Capitalization involves assets that are useful over the life of the business. However, some of the expenses and assets only last a year. Sometimes, the tax body in a country may need to tax an asset over the time of its life and so they capitalize the asset (Irs np). A point to note is that amortization does not involve tangible assets like machines and computers. These assets go through depreciation. Amortization only includes intangible assets like patents copyrights, startup costs trademarks and licenses.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the difference in amortization comes about in the definition. These are two terms that are present in finance. Amortization is a practice in accounting for given amount of time. It includes the subtraction of different expenses over time while capitalization combines the value of the company. Another difference is capitalization includes tangible assets while amortization includes intangible assets like patents copyrights, startup costs trademarks and licenses.