Profit before tax and profit after tax

Profit after tax

In millions of euros

EPS – Earnings per share

In euros

According to the figures published in accordance with IFRS, profit before tax and profit after tax were both down year-over-year in the business year 2016/17. This means that in accordance with IFRS, profit before tax declined by 6.8% from EUR 751.3 million to EUR 699.9 million, while profit after tax fell by 12.5% from EUR 602.1 million to EUR 527.0 million. Excluding non-recurring effects, which totaled EUR 74.5 million in 2015/16 and EUR –16.6 million in 2016/17 for profit before tax, and EUR 92.3 million in 2015/16 and EUR –12.5 million in 2016/17 for profit after tax, the adjusted figures for profit before tax and profit after tax both improved compared to the previous year. Adjusted for non-recurring effects, profit before tax increased by 5.9%, rising from EUR 676.8 million to EUR 716.5 million as a result of the further decline in net interest charges, among other factors. Also adjusted for non-recurring effects, profit after tax rose by 5.8% from EUR 509.8 million to EUR 539.4 million in the same period. Since the positive non-recurring effects in the business year 2015/16 were not taxable, the tax rate in the previous year (based on the reported figures) was only just under 20% (2016/17: 24.7%). In contrast, the adjusted tax rate for the business year 2016/17 was 24.7%, identical to the adjusted prior-year figure.