21. Deferred tax assets/deferred tax liabilities

Deferred taxes relate to the following balance sheet items:

The reported balance of deferred tax assets and liabilities in the amount of €61 million (30/9/2022: €134 million) is largely attributable to temporary differences at various foreign subsidiaries. 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 deferred tax liability of €4 million recognised as of 30 September 2023 (30/9/2022: €33 million) is attributable to planned intra-group dividend payments.

The reversal of the recognised deferred tax assets on outside basis differences in the current year relates to the country exit in Japan.

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 entailed a disproportionately high effort due to the level of detail of the METRO group.

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 trade tax loss carry-forwards for which no deferred tax assets were recognised relate to German companies and can be carried forward without limitations.

Deferred taxes on components of other comprehensive income primarily apply to the remeasurement of defined benefit pension plans. The other components are not tax-effective.