October, 2007
Equity Section of the Balance Sheet
I got a question about the “equity section” of the balance sheet and what goes there.
The section is divided up into different accounts. Exactly what name things are called depends on the particular type of company, but there are several items that are common to all companies.
The Equity section is a way to calculate the “book value” of the company as a whole. An accounting convention is A=L+OE, which means Total Assets of a company (all the cash, receivables, fixed assets and property) is equal to the Liabilities plus Owners Equity.
In theory, if you converted all the assets of the company to cash and paid off all the liabilities, the owners get to keep what ever is ‘left over.’ That is their Equity in the company.
It is possible to have more liabilities than assets, so the owners actually owe more money than the company has in assets. If the owners are personally liable for what the company owes, they’d have to pay to go “out of business.” That’s generally a bad thing. Companies with negative Equity can stay in business if they have good Cash Flow that allows them to service their debt long enough to become profitable. Negative Equity and bad cash flow leads to bankruptcy.
Corporations have an account called “Stock” or “Capital Stock” (same thing). This represents money the corporation has on “permanent loan” from the stockholders. This amount is set at the beginning of a corporation, and is the initial deposit made to open the checking account, plus the value of any assets contributed. This number rarely changes over the life of the corporation. Service businesses typically have smaller amounts than capital intensive businesses like computer rental companies where you’d expect a certain amount of cash to purchase equipment. I often set this account up when I prepare the first year’s tax return, if it isn’t already set up. If you’re not a corporation, you probably don’t have this account.
There is a “Net Income” account that tracks the current year income. This number should exactly match the Net Income at the bottom of the Profit and Loss statement for the year to date. This account is typical to all businesses. This is only current year income; no prior year income should be included here.
The first year, there is no “Retained Earnings” account, because this account tracks the Net Income for every year previous to the current year. (Remember the current year is all in Net Income). In the second year the Net Income moves to the Retained Earnings account: you ‘zero’ the Net Income and start Net Income over again.
Both Net Income and Retained Earnings may be either positive or negative numbers. In a typical startup, these numbers are negative the first few years until income starts to accumulate. If these numbers are negative, there should be a good reason, or you should quit.
“Distribution/Draw/Dividends Paid Out” is an account that usually carries a ‘negative’ balance. The official name depends on the form of your business, but this account is where you keep track of money taken out of the business by the owner(s). This is different from payroll, if the owners have payroll (like in a corporation). Payroll is always an expense.
There can be some other wacky accounts in the Equity section, like Treasury Stock and Paid In Capital, but you probably won’t need these in a typical set of books.
If you have questions about your Equity Section, give us a call.
Classes – Schedule C, Basic Payroll, How to Prepare the 1120S and The 'S' Corporation
Andy’s
Preparing your own Schedule C class will be presented for the last time this
year at the Small Business Administration in SF on October 10th
at 6.
http://web.sba.gov/calendar/public/index.cfm?op=group&grp=13 to
sign up. It will be at 455 Market Street, 6th Floor, and I usually use the
Montgomery St BART station.
Here’s the blurb:
Prepare your business taxes for ’06 and get ready for ‘07. Review
what the IRS wants to know from you and how to report it on the Schedule C
for your business. This is a class for business owners who need a basic understanding
of their 1040 Schedule C tax forms. We’ll also talk about what to do
with the numbers once you have them. We don’t guarantee you won’t
get audited, but this class will make it less likely.
Also, in conjunction with the IRS and EDD, Andy's going to be doing some Basic Payroll seminars coming up in the near future. The next seminar will be October 24th in San Rafael at 120 North Redwood Drive, 2nd floor, Redwood Room October 24, 9 am – 3 pm. Reservations may be made at 866 873-6083 for the Federal/State Basic Payroll Tax Seminar, or on line at http://www.edd.ca.gov/taxsem/txsemrs.asp?SemID=2648
Andy will be back in Oakland November 7th downtown, and December 5th in Oakland again. These seminars have proven to be very popular.
How to Prepare the 1120S: Getting In and Staying In is a seminar for tax preparers on preparing the annual tax return for “S” corporations. This will be a four hour presentation for $200 on November 3rd in Lafayette ($175 if you sign up early). This will be a ‘nuts and bolts’ session, though I’m tempted to call it a “flashlight with batteries” event. If you need to learn how to do first year 1120S returns, this is for you.
Andy
will be doing a presentation on Why I love the “S” Corporation
for the Solano/Napa EA Society Tuesday, January 22nd 2008 at 6 pm. More details
will follow.
October 15th Tax Deadline—We need a week
The deadline for personal tax
returns on extension from 2006 is October 15th. If you haven’t filed
your corporate return, it’s late. Please don’t
wait until the last minute. If you don’t have your materials to us one
week before deadline, we will not be able to prepare your return on time—you’ll
be filing late, which results in an additional penalty, plus it makes us frown.
If we haven’t been contacting you to annoy you, we’re not worried
about you, so you need to contact us. We try not to worry.
Schedule a chair massage for yourself and your office
If you’ve already filed your tax
returns for ’06, congratulations!
Take a break from work and schedule a company chair massage. Try http://www.onthespotmassage.com/corporate.html to
schedule one for yourself or your entire company.
Your Questions in Future Newsletters
Feel free to e-mail questions you’d like answered. If we think it is a topic of general interest, we’ll include the answer in upcoming newsletters!