Quick Answer: Earnings are the net benefits of a corporation's operation. Earnings are also the amount on which corporate tax is due. For an analysis of specific aspects of corporate operations several more specific terms are used as EBIT and EBITDA. Many alternative terms for earnings are commonly used, such as income and profit. These terms in turn have a variety of definitions, depending on their context and the objectives of the authors. For instance, the IRS uses the term profit to describe earnings, whereas for the corporation the profit it reports is the amount left after taxes are taken out.