24. Deferred tax assets / deferred tax liabilities

Deferred tax assets on tax loss carry-forwards and temporary differences amount to €992 million before netting (30/9/2016: €1,129 million), a decline of €137 million compared with 30 September 2016. The carrying amounts of deferred tax liabilities decreased by €55 million to €653 million compared with the previous year (30/9/2016: €709 million).

Deferred taxes relate to the following balance sheet items:

Of the deferred tax assets shown, €239 million (30/9/2016: €260 million) are attributable to the group of incorporated companies of METRO AG. The additional deferred tax assets of €100 million (30/9/2016: €161 million) are attributable to various entities abroad. Based on business planning, realisation of these tax assets is to be considered sufficiently likely.

In accordance with IAS 12 (Income Taxes), deferred tax liabilities relating to differences between the carrying amount of a subsidiary’s pro rata equity in the balance sheet and the carrying amount of the investment for this subsidiary in the parent company’s tax statement must be recognised (so-called outside basis differences) if the tax benefit is likely to be realised in the future. The differences can primarily be attributed to retained earnings of subsidiaries in Germany and abroad. No deferred taxes were recognised for these retained earnings as they will be reinvested over an indefinite period of time or are not subject to relevant taxation. Any dividends paid by subsidiaries would be subject to a dividend tax. In addition, foreign dividends may trigger a withholding tax. As of 30 September 2017, no deferred tax liabilities from outside basis differences were recognised for planned dividend payments (30/9/2016: €0 million). The sum of the amount of temporary differences in connection with investments in subsidiaries for which no deferred tax liabilities were recognised was not determined as this would have been disproportionately expensive due to the of the METRO group’s level of detail.

No deferred tax assets were capitalised for the following tax loss carry-forwards and interest carry-forwards or temporary differences because realisation of the assets in the short to medium term is not expected:

The losses in the reporting period primarily concern Germany. They can be carried forward without limitation. The disclosures for the previous year relate exclusively to foreign countries and were determined on the premise of the Group Allocation Approach.

As a result of non-taxable events as well as the non-recognition and impairment of deferred taxes, the recognised tax does not correspond to the estimated tax for each item.