Total liabilities and equity

Total liabilities and equity is the last line on the balance sheet: everything the company owes plus everything that belongs to its shareholders.

The formula is:

It always equals total assets. Every asset a company holds was paid for either with money it owes (liabilities) or with money from its owners (equity), so the two sides of the balance sheet must match. This line is where the statement shows that they do.

On its own the figure adds nothing new, since it repeats total assets. Its use is in the split: how much of the total comes from liabilities and how much from equity shows how the company is funded, the starting point for judging how much of its funding it owes to others.