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I am struggling to understand the difference between these two. They seem to mean the same thing and are used interchangeably.

Investopedia also has two different article on them.

Paid-in capital is the amount of capital "paid in" by investors during common or preferred stock issuances, including the par value of the shares themselves plus amounts in excess of par value. Paid-in capital represents the funds raised by the business through selling its equity and not from ongoing business operations.

-- Paid-In Capital

Paid-up capital is the amount of money a company has received from shareholders in exchange for shares of stock. Paid-up capital is created when a company sells its shares on the primary market directly to investors, usually through an initial public offering (IPO).

-- Paid-Up Capital

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    Note that Paid Up Capital is also a specific tax term in Canada, so there may be a jurisdictional difference in authors that led to both posts being made. Aug 7, 2020 at 19:53
  • @Grade'Eh'Bacon I see. That is interesting.
    – Starx
    Aug 10, 2020 at 11:34

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You have discovered one of the issues with investopedia. It isn't consistent.

There is also an article How Do Share Capital and Paid-Up Capital Differ? that contains this section (I have highlighted the important section):

Characteristics of Paid-Up Capital

Paid-up capital doesn't need to be repaid, which is a major benefit of funding business operations in this manner. Also called paid-in capital, equity capital, or contributed capital, paid-up capital is simply the total amount of money shareholders have paid for shares at the initial issuance. It does not include any amount that investors later pay to purchase shares on the open market.

There are other examples I have stumbled across over time.

I just noticed that both articles you linked to contain a video called "Paid-up Capital" and the paid-up article does say it is the same as paid-in capital.

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  • Yeah, it does have the same video and does say it is same as well, I just couldn't believe that it was. So, I asked wondering if they are indeed different things and not something people are calling just out of habit. I mean why would people create two terms to mean the same thing? You know?
    – Starx
    Jul 8, 2020 at 12:04
  • And, thanks for the answer, I didn't know Investopedia was inconsistent.
    – Starx
    Jul 8, 2020 at 12:05

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