Capital

Definition

• Wealth in the form of money or property that is used to make money or that is accumulated in a business by a person, partnership, or corporation.

Synonyms
wealth, cash, investments, influence, money

Related Terms and Acronyms

• Angel Investors — Definition,
  • Private individuals with capital to invest in business enterprises.
• Best's Capital Adequacy Relativity — Definition,
  • A percentage used to measure a company's relative capital strength as compared to an industry peer composite.
• Capital Adequacy Ratio — Definition,
  • A ratio of total capital divided by risk-weighted assets and risk-weighted off-balance sheet items. A bank is expected to meet a minimum capital ratio of 8.0% unless a higher ratio is specifically prescribed by the Superintendent of Financial Institutions.
• Capital Assets — Definition,
  • Items that you own for investment or personal purposes, such as stocks, bonds or stamp collections. When you sell a capital asset, depending on the price you earn a capital gain or a capital loss. Gains are taxed at a special rate, and losses can be used in many cases to reduce the amount that is taxed. See also "Capital Gain" or "Capital Loss."
• Capital Expenditure — Definition,
  • The cost of making an improvement to a property.
• Capital Gain (CG) — Acronym, Important,
  • The profit made by the seller when real estate or other capital assets are sold. Capital gains are taxed more favourably than earned income. However, this can be dependent on your tax bracket and the length of time you owned the asset before it was sold. You could pay approximately one-third to one-half less tax than you would pay on the same amount of earned salary.
• Capital Gain Distribution — Definition,
  • When the fund sells some of its assets, you receive capital gain distributions or a portion from the sale. This distribution is regarded as a capital gain, not as ordinary dividends such as the interest gained from a bank account. It is important to separate capital gain distributions from ordinary dividends because capital gains are taxed more favourably.
• Capital Loss — Definition,
  • When an asset is sold for less than what you paid, or less than its adjusted basis, it is a capital loss. However, when it comes to taxes a capital loss is not always bad because you can use it to reduce the amount of income being taxed by the amount of the loss, up to $3,000 per year. If your loss is more significant, the excess (or capital loss carryover) can be carried forward indefinitely until the total loss is used.
• Foreign Investment — Definition,
  • Investing money into a business in another country.
• Leverage — Definition,
  • The use of a small amount of cash and a large loan to buy something.
• Leveraged Property — Definition,
  • A property financed with mortgage debt.
• Profit — Definition,
  • When revenues exceed expenses.
• Return on Equity (ROE) — Acronym,
  • A ratio that shows how profitable a company is when compared to shareholder equity.
• Short-Term Capital Gain (STCG) — Acronym,
  • Your gain from the sale of a capital asset that you held for one year or less.
• Short-term Capital Loss — Definition,
  • Your loss from the sale of a capital asset that you held for one year or less.