B
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Backup Withholding | Payers of interest, dividends, and other reportable payments must withhold income tax at a rate equal to the fourth lowest rate applicable to single filers if the payee fails to supply a federal ID # or certify exemption. |
| Backwards Spreading | The practice of dividing income earned in a particular accounting year into portions allocated to several previous accounting periods. |
| Bad Debt Provision | Money set aside in accounts to cover potential bad debts. |
| Bail Out | To rescue a company facing financial difficulties. |
| Bailment | A transfer of goods from a ‘bailor’ to a ‘bailee,’ who holds them until they must be returned. |
| Balance | The amount put in one column of an account to make total debits and credits equal. |
| Balanced Budget | A budget where expenditure and income are equal. |
| Balanced Scorecard | A system of measurement using indicators like customer relations, internal efficiency, financial performance, and innovation to assess an organization’s overall performance. |
| Balance of Payments | A comparison between total receipts and payments from a country’s international trade in goods, services, and financial transactions. |
| Back Duty | A duty or tax due but not yet paid. |
| Back-End Loaded | Referring to insurance or investment schemes where commission is charged upon investor withdrawal. |
| Bridge Finance | Loans covering short-term needs. |
| Budget Deficit | A deficit in a country’s planned budget, where income from taxation is insufficient to cover government expenditure. |
| Bullet Bond | A Eurobond redeemed only when mature. |
| Bullet Loan | A loan repaid in a single payment. |
| Buy Back | To repurchase something previously sold. |
| Blue Chip | A very safe investment, a risk-free share in a good company. |
| Bona Fide | Trustworthy, reliable, can be trusted. |
| Bottleneck | A situation where one section of an operation cannot cope with the workload, slowing down later stages of the operation and overall business activity. |
| Breach of Contract | The failure to fulfill something agreed upon in a contract. |
| Breach of Trust | When a person does not act correctly or honestly, violating expectations. |
| Break Even | To balance costs and receipts, making neither a profit nor a loss. |
| Break-Even Analysis | Analyzing fixed and variable costs and sales to determine the break-even point at a certain level of production. |
| Break-Even Point | The level of financial activity where expenditure equals income, resulting in neither profit nor loss. |
| Bricks-and-Mortar | Referring to a company’s fixed assets, especially its buildings. |
| Benchmark | A point or level used as a reference for evaluations or assessments. |
| Bid Market | A market where there are more bids to buy than offers to sell. |
| Bid-Offer Price | Price charged by unit trusts to buyers and sellers based on the bid-offer spread. |
| Bid-Offer Spread | The difference between buying and selling prices. |
| Bottom Line | The line in a financial statement showing net income or loss. |
| Break-Even Point | The point at which total revenues equal total costs. |
| Break-Even Units | The number of units that must be sold before a company covers direct and indirect costs. |
| Budget | A financial plan estimating future costs, revenues, or both. |
| Burden Rate | Standard rate multiplied by activity level to determine overhead cost. |
| Business Combinations | The combining of two entities, where one entity acquires another under the purchase method or merges through an exchange of common stock in a pooling of interests. |
| Business Segment | An authorized division of an organization operating under substantial control by its own management. |
| Buyout | The purchase of at least a controlling percentage of a company’s stock to take over its assets and operations. |
| Bylaws | Formal, written rules governing a corporation’s affairs, approved by stockholders or owners. |