Contributed Capital and Additional Paid-in Capital Key Differences

It’s important to understand these two items as they play a crucial role in the equity section of the balance sheet. Over 1.8 million professionals use CFI to learn accounting, financial analysis, modeling and more. Start with a free account to explore 20+ always-free courses and hundreds of finance templates and cheat sheets. One of the pieces of information that you need to take into consideration is your contributed capital.

• Essentially, contributed capital includes both the par value of share capital (common stock) and the value above par value (additional paid-in capital).
• As CEO and Co-Founder, Mike leads FloQast’s corporate vision, strategy and execution.
• Because of this, “additional paid-in capital” tends to be representative of the total paid-in capital figure and is sometimes shown by itself on the balance sheet.
• Contributed capital of a company is made up of two items; stocks and additional paid-in capital.
• This is in contrast to other forms of equity financing, such as retained earnings, which are generated from the company’s own profits.
• The difference you find between these two values will equal the premium that’s paid by investors, which will be above the par value of the company shares.

The par value is merely an accounting value of each of the shares to be offered and is not equivalent to the market value that investors are willing to pay. Retained earnings and additional paid-in capital (or share premium) are two key sources of capital for any business. The additional paid-in capital account cannot be used for just any investment purpose.

Pros and Cons of Contributed Capital

On a company’s balance sheet, contributed capital is an entry that reflects the amount of a company’s stock that is shareholders have purchased. It also indicates the price shareholders have paid for their stake or position in the company. Contributed capital amounts to the total value of a company’s stock that have been issued in exchange for cash or assets from shareholders. Money generated from Initial public offerings (IPOs), secondary offerings and direct public offerings make up the contributed capital. Contributed capital is not limited to cash paid by shareholders for stock, it includes the assets exchanged for stock.

• Contributed capital is the total value of the stock that shareholders have bought directly from the issuing company.
• Only direct issuances from the company to investors are recorded on the books.
• The par value of a bond is often fixed at $1,000 since that is the face value at which the issuing company will redeem the bond certificate on the maturity date.
• APIC happens when an investor directly purchases freshly issued shares from the company.

It primarily consists of funds raised through common and preferred stock issuance. The common stock account is also known as share capital account, and the additional paid-in capital account is also known as the share premium account. Continuing with our example above, the company issues 1 million $ 0.10 shares. But investors would willingly pay a higher price per share than the par value.

Common stocks and preferred stocks are recorded at the face or par values in the books. At the time of issuing these stocks, investors are ready to pay a premium above the par values. The amount equivalent to face values or par share prices is recorded as common equity.

How Contributed Capital Affects a Company’s Ownership Structure and Control

When being reported in a company’s balance sheet, contributed capital is categorized into two accounts; common stock amount and additional paid-in-capital account. The common stock account is otherwise called the share capital amount while the additional paid-in-capital account is known is the share premium account. Reporting contributed capital entails the consideration of par value of stock and the amount over or above the part value that shareholders are willing to pay in exchange for the company’s stock. Here is an example of contributed capital; Company A has 1000 shares to be issued to shareholders and sets $3 as the par value of each share. The shareholders are however willing to pay an amount over and above the par value, let’s say $10. This means the company has been able to raise an additional $7 on each share.

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There is no pledge or statement of collateral asked by the funders for the issuance of equity shares. Such collateral pledges can be requested if a firm gains capital by borrowing them. Apart from that, the assets present with the firm are free, and easily accessible if in the future needed as security for loans. Talking about the newly purchased assets of the firm, they’re raised by the issuance of equity capital.

Additional Paid-In Capital vs. Contributed Capital

Contributed capital is the investment of owners, whereas earned capital is net earnings of the company that haven’t been distributed to the owners. There are some advantages of contributed capital such as no collateral, no limit on usage of funds, and no set limit to pay. The disadvantages that are generally noticed via contributed capital are ownership insolvency and no assurance on return. If companies seek debt financing, they know they will be required to make monthly payments on that debt. Consequently, with a price per share of 100$, the investors will have to pay $ despite having a par value of 10$.

For the investor in the example above, the additional paid-in capital (i.e. the share premium) is $20,000. Additional paid-in capital is the amount paid for share capital above its par value. From this, the company would end up recording $10,000 tax form 1099 to its common stock account and $90,000 to its Additional Paid-in Capital in excess of par. When these accounts are added together, they equal the total amount that the stockholders were willing to pay for the purchase of their shares.

Additional paid-in capital accounts for any amount above the par or stated value of the shares issued. Contributed capital and share premium are both vital sources of equity financing for any company. Raising money through these sources does not increase the cost of financing. The company also has no legal obligation to pay dividends against the investment. Also, the share premium is set by the difference in the par value and the issue price.

This is why additional paid-in capital can sometimes be separate on the balance sheet of a company. Also, selling or buying shares on the stock exchange does not affect contributed capital. Unless of course, the company issues new shares or buys back issued shares from shareholders. Additional paid-in capital is “contributed capital over par” when a firm is in the initial public offering (IPO) phase.