Treasury shares is another name for treasury stock: shares that a company has issued, later bought back from investors and kept in its own name instead of cancelling them. The main entry explains how such shares arise and how they are accounted for.
"Treasury shares" is the wording used in the United Kingdom, the European Union and most other markets outside North America, and it is the term found in International Financial Reporting Standards. Under IAS 32, the cost of treasury shares is deducted from equity, and no gain or loss is recognised when they are bought, sold, reissued or cancelled.
While held in treasury, the shares carry no voting rights and receive no dividends, and they are left out of the share count used for earnings per share. They remain part of issued share capital until cancelled. Company law in many countries caps the proportion of its own shares a company may hold. Treasury shares usually result from a share buyback and are often used to satisfy employee share awards. They are unrelated to government treasury securities.