Net income

For personal income net of taxes, see disposable income.

"Bottom line" redirects here. For other uses, see Bottom line (disambiguation).

Accountancy
Key concepts
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Fields of accounting
Cost Financial Forensic Fund Management Tax (U.S.)
Financial statements
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Auditing
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Accounting qualifications
CIA CA AIA CPA CCA CGA CMA CAT AAT CFE CICA ACCA CIMA CGMA

In business, net income - also referred to as the bottom line, net profit, or net earnings - is an entity's income minus expenses for an accounting period. It is computed as the residual of all revenues and gains over all expenses and losses for the period, and has also been defined as the net increase in stockholder's equity that results from a company's operations. In the context of the presentation of financial statements, the IFRS Foundation defines net income as synonymous with profit and loss.

Net income is a distinct accounting concept from profit. Profit is a term that "means different things to different people", and different line items in a financial statement may carry the term "profit", such as gross profit and profit before tax. In contrast, net income is a precisely defined term in accounting.

Overview

Net income can be distributed among holders of common stock as a dividend or held by the firm as an addition to retained earnings. As profit and earnings are used synonymously for income (also depending on UK and US usage), net earnings and net profit are commonly found as synonyms for net income. Often, the term income is substituted for net income, yet this is not preferred due to the possible ambiguity. Net income is informally called the bottom line because it is typically found on the last line of a company's income statement (a related term is top line, meaning revenue, which forms the first line of the account statement).

The items deducted will typically include tax expense, financing expense (interest expense), and minority interest. Likewise, preferred stock dividends will be subtracted too, though they are not an expense. For a merchandising company, subtracted costs may be the cost of goods sold, sales discounts, and sales returns and allowances. For a product company advertising, manufacturing, and design and development costs are included.

An equation for net income

Net sales (revenue)

– Cost of goods sold

= Gross profit

– SG&A expenses (combined costs of operating the company)

= EBITDA

– Depreciation & amortization

= EBIT

– Interest expense (cost of borrowing money)

= EBT

– Tax expense

= Net income (EAT)

= Net income (east)

See also

Dividend Economic value added Gross income Income statement Liquidating dividend

Net income per employee Operating income Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortization Opportunity cost Profit (accounting)