What are examples of liabilities?

Liabilities are legal obligations payable to a third party. A liability is recorded in the general ledger, in a liability-type account that has a natural credit balance.

A number of examples of liability accounts are presented in the following list, which is split into current and long-term liabilities:

Current Liability Accounts (due in less than one year):

• Accounts payable. Invoiced liabilities due to suppliers.
• Accrued liabilities. Liabilities that have not yet been invoiced by a supplier, but which are owed as of the balance sheet date.
• Accrued wages. Compensation earned but not yet paid as of the balance sheet date.
• Customer deposits. Payments made by customers in advance of the seller completing services or shipping goods to them.
• Current portion of debt payable. Any portion of long-term debt that is due for payment within one year.
• Deferred revenue. A payment by a customer that has not yet been earned by the company.
• Income taxes payable. Income taxes payable to the government.
• Interest payable. Interest accrued on debt that has not yet been invoices by the lender.
• Payroll taxes payable. Taxes payable that result from the completion of a recent payroll transaction.
• Sales taxes payable. Sales taxes charged to customers, which the company must remit to the applicable taxing authority.
• Use taxes payable. Use taxes are essentially sales taxes that are remitted directly to the government having jurisdiction, rather than through a supplier who would otherwise remit the tax.
• Warranty liability. A reserve for any warranty liability associated with sales, for which warranty claims have not yet been received.

Long Term Liability Accounts (due in more than one year):

• Debt. Debt that is due for payment in more than one year.

There are also a small number of contra liability accounts that offset regular liability accounts. These contra accounts have a natural debit balance. One of the few examples of a contra liability account is the discount on bonds payable (or notes payable) account.

Related Topics

How do I handle disputed liabilities? 
How should I classify debt due on demand? 
What is a contingent liability? 
What is a contra liability account? 
What is a negative liability?