in the business). When reinvested, those retained earnings are reflected as increases to assets (which could include cash) or reductions to liabilities on the balance sheet. Stockholders' equity When total assets are greater than total liabilities, stockholders have a positive equity (positive book value). Conversely, when total liabilities are greater than total assets, stockholders have a negative stockholders' equity (negative book value) — also sometimes called stockholders' deficit. A stockholders' deficit does not mean that stockholders owe money to the corporation as they own only its net assets and are not accountable for its liabilities, though it is one of the definitions of insolvency. It means that the value of the assets of the company must rise above its liabilities before the stockholders hold positive equity value in the company. Retained earnings = opening retained earnings + current year net profit from p&l a/c - dividends paid in current year Tax implications A company is normally subject to a company tax on the net income of the company in a financial year. The amount added to retained earnings is generally the after tax net income. In most cases in most jurisdictions no tax is payable on the accumulated earnings retained by a company. However, this creates a potential for tax avoidance, because the corporate tax rate is usually lower than the higher marginal rates for some individual taxpayers. Higher income taxpayers could "park" income inside a private company instead of being paid out as a dividend and then taxed at the individual rates. To remove this tax benefit, some jurisdictions impose an "undistributed profits tax" on retained earnings of private companies, usually at the highest individual marginal tax rate. The issue of bonus shares, even if funded out of retained earnings, will in most jurisdictions not be treated as a dividend distribution and not taxed in the hands of the shareholder. Retaining earnings by a company increases the company's shareholder equity, which increases the value of each shareholder's shareholding. This increases the share price, which may result in a capital gains tax liability when the shares are disposed. The decision of whether a corporation should retain net income or have it paid out as dividends depends on several factors including, but not limited to: Tax treatment of dividends, and Funds required for reinvestment in the corporation (called retention). A number of factors affect the decision of the amount of profit