In finance, capital structure refers to the way a corporation finances its assets through some combination of equity, debt, or hybrid securities. A firm's capital structure is then the composition or 'structure' of its liabilities. For example, a firm that sells $20 billion in equity and $80 billion in debt is said to be 20 quity-financed and 80 ebt-financed. The firm's ratio of debt to total financing, 80% in this example, is referred to as the firm's leverage. In reality, capital structure may be highly complex and include dozens of sources. Gearing Ratio is the proportion of the capital employed of the firm which come from outside of the business finance, e.g. by taking a short term loan etc.

Unter Kapitalstruktur versteht man im Allgemeinen die bilanzielle Zusammensetzung des Kapitals eines Unternehmens, z. B. den Anteil des Fremdkapitals und Eigenkapitals am Gesamtkapital (vergleichend zur Vermögensstruktur  auf der Aktivseite der Bilanz).