What is a capital surplus?

A capital surplus is an accounting term that is no longer commonly used. It refers to the additional paid-in capital in excess of par value that an investor pays a company when buying shares from the company.

Par value was originally the price at which a company's shares were initially offered for sale, so that prospective investors could be assured that the company would not issue shares at a price below the par value. However, par value is no longer required by some states; in other states, companies are allowed to set the par value at a minimal amount, such as $0.01 per share. The result is that nearly all of the price paid for a share of stock is recorded as additional paid-in capital (or capital surplus, to use the older term).

For example, if ABC Company were to sell 100 shares of its $1 par value common stock for $9 per share, it would record $100 of the $900 in total proceeds in the Common Stock account and $800 in the Additional Paid-in Capital account. In earlier days, the $800 entry to the Additional Paid-In Capital account would instead have been made to the Capital Surplus account.

Thus, if the capital surplus term were still used, a company would acquire a capital surplus by selling its stock to investors at a price above the designated par value of the stock, with the incremental amount above the par value being identified as capital surplus.

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