Dividend
In accounting, dividend means a distribution of earnings to shareholders, declared by the board — a liability from the declaration date and a reduction of retained earnings, never an expense.
- Layer
- Lexicon
- Defined in
- Lexicon
- Nearby
- 4
Authority
This definition follows ASC 505.
Every citation in this system, with the text we read and the date we checked it, is in US GAAP and where these rules come from.
What it is not called
Each of these is a real word for a different thing. Using it here is what makes a product read as though it was built by someone who has not done the work.
- expense
- drawings (an owner's withdrawal from an unincorporated business)
Nearby in the catalog
No component names this concept outright. These are the ones in its part of the system, which is a weaker claim — but a component nothing links to is a component nobody finds.
Terms this one depends on
- Retained earningsAccumulated net income not distributed to owners — where the P&L lands on the balance sheet
- LiabilityA present obligation of the entity to transfer an economic benefit (FASB CON 8 ¶E37)
- ExpenseOutflows or using up of assets, or incurrences of liabilities, from delivering goods or services — recognized when incurred, not when paid
Also in Equity & financing
Work with this concept
The calculators that compute it and the ledger payloads that carry it. A definition is where a reader starts; these are where they go next.
Defined in Lexicon. This page is generated from that document, so the two cannot disagree.