What is Owners Equity?

Previous lesson: Define Liability
Next lesson: The Accounting Equation and Financial Position

What is owners equity? Good question. It's a question many an accounting student has pondered.

Owner’s equity is officially defined as:

The residual interest in the assets of the enterprise after deducting all its liabilities.

That's a slightly complicated definition. Here's a simpler one:

The owner’s equity is simply the owner’s share of the assets of a business.

You see, assets can only ‘belong’ to two types of people: the first type is people outside the business you owe money to (liabilities), and the second is the owner himself (owner's equity).

Owner’s equity, often just called equity, represents the value of the assets that the owner can lay claim to.

In other words, it's the value of all the assets after deducting the value of assets needed to pay liabilities.

In other words:

It is the value of the assets that the owner really owns.

ASSETS = EQUITY + LIABILITIES

Thus the accounting equation indicates how much of the assets of a business belong to, or are owned, by whom.

Hope that all makes sense now!

In our final lesson of this section we're going to relook the accounting equation and see how it relates to the financial position of a business.

Return from What is Owners Equity? to Basic Concepts

Return to the Home Page

Previous lesson: Define Liability
Next lesson: The Accounting Equation and Financial Position

Enjoying this Website?
Help Support it with a Donation

OR...

Questions Relating to This Lesson

Click below to see questions and exercises on this same topic from other visitors to this page... (if there is no published solution to the question/exercise, then try and solve it yourself)

Owners Equity Synonym
Owner's equity is also called.....?

Accounting Equation Question:
Fill in the Blank
Owner's equity = ? + ? - ? I need answers for this question. Please help!

Accounting Equation & Owners Equity Question
If an owner invests more money into the business do the assets increase or liabilities increase?

Financial Statements and Investors
Q: How are the balance sheet, income statement, statement of owner's equity and statement of cash flow useful for investors? 1. Balance Sheet …

Is Equity and Capital the Same?
Q: Are equity and capital the same ? A: No, they are not. Equity is the owner's share of the assets of a business (assets can be owned by the owner …

Profit Distribution for a Partnership
For example if profit last year shows $21,600. Shall I distribute this to the partners A & B for the beginning of 2009 - therefore it is an addition to …