Notes to the income statement
 

8 Revenue

Other commission and fees include revenue from property brokerage of € 11,345 thsd (previous year: € 11,325 thsd).

9 Other revenue

For more information on income from the reversal of provisions, please refer to Note 28.

Income from the reversal of deferred obligations essentially comprises income from the reversal of provisions for profit-sharing payments and performance-based remuneration, as well as income from the reversal of provisions for outstanding invoices.

The item “Cost transfers to commercial agents” essentially comprises income from cost transfers of insurance companies, services and material costs.

Own work capitalised results from the collaboration of Group employees in the development of acquired software.

The item “Remuneration for management” contains pre-allocated profits due to management tasks for private equity companies.

Income from the disposal of investments results from the sale of FERI EuroRating Services (FERI segment), as well as sale of the stake in NKK Programm Service AG (DOMCURA segment).

In the previous year, rental income included rent from the operating lease for an office and administration building operated by MLP AG, which ended on December 31, 2015.

Sundry other income includes interest income on tax credit, income from cost reimbursement claims, offset remuneration in kind and income from the performance of IT services.
 

10 Commission expenses

Commission expenses mainly consist of the commission payments and other remuneration components for the self-employed MLP consultants.

11 Interest expenses

Interest expenses of € 829 thsd (previous year: € 1,259 thsd) are attributable to interest charges for liabilities due to clients in the banking business.
 

12 Personnel expenses

Personnel expenses essentially include salaries and wages, remuneration and other payments to employees. The social security contributions include the statutory contributions to be borne by the company in the form of social security insurance premiums. Expenses for old-age provisions and benefits mainly include the employer’s shares of supplementary occupational pension provision.

13 Depreciation and impairments

Impairments include impairment losses for a software development of € 10,399 thsd (previous year: € 1,584 thsd). Development work on this software has been stopped.

Based on the measurement pursuant to IFRS 5.25, the real estate reclassified under “Assets held for sale” in the previous year was not subject to any depreciation in the financial year 2016 (previous year: € 32 thsd). No impairments due to lower fair value were necessary (previous year: € 1,190 thsd).

The development of non-current assets is disclosed in Note 19 (intangible assets), Note 20 (property, plant and equipment) and Note 21 (non-current assets held for sale).
 

14 Other operating expenses

The costs of IT operations are mainly attributable to IT services and computer centre services that have been outsourced to an external service provider.

The consulting costs are made up of tax advice costs, legal advice costs as well as general and IT consulting costs.

The expenses for administration operations include costs relating to building operations, office costs and communication costs.

The item “External services - banking business” mainly contains securities settlement and transaction costs in connection with the MLP credit card.

Expenses for representation and advertising include costs incurred due to media presence and client information activities.

Expenses for commercial agents include costs for former consultants and the training allowance granted for new consultants.

Sundry other operating expenses essentially comprise expenses for other taxes, charitable donations, disposal of fixed assets and cars.

15 Earnings from investments accounted for using the equity method

Earnings from investments accounted for using the equity method were € 2,106 thsd in the financial year (previous year: € 1,836 thsd) and resulted from the share of earnings in MLP Hyp GmbH. In line with a company agreement, the profit distribution of MLP Hyp GmbH is disproportionate.

Investments accounted for using the equity method relate only to the 49.8% share in MLP Hyp GmbH, Wiesloch. The company operates the joint mortgage financing business of MLP Finanzdienstleistungen AG, Wiesloch, and Interhyp AG, Munich.

The shares developed as follows:

The following table contains summarised financial information on MLP Hyp GmbH:

16 Finance cost

Other interest and similar income of € 52 thsd (previous year: € 140 thsd) is attributable to interest income from deposits with financial institutions which were not included in the banking business segment and € 260 thsd (previous year: € 49 thsd) is attributable to income from the discounting of provisions. Other interest and similar expenses include expenses from the accrued interest of other provisions totalling € 627 thsd (previous year: € 584 thsd).

17  Income taxes

The current taxes on income and profit include expenses of € -388 thsd (previous year: € 1,967 thsd) which relate to previous periods.

The current and deferred tax is calculated using the relevant country-specific income tax rate. The anticipated combined income tax rate for domestic companies is made up of corporation tax at 15.0% (previous year: 15.0%), the solidarity surcharge at 5.5% (previous year: 5.5%) and an average municipal trade tax rate of 13.53% (previous year: 13.37%) and amounts to 29.36% (previous year: 29.19%).

The taxation rates likely to be applicable at their time of implementation should be used to calculate deferred income taxes. The taxation rates used here are those that are valid or have been announced for the periods in question as of the balance sheet date.

The following reconciliation account shows the relationship between the earnings before tax and the taxes on income and profit in the financial year:

The effective income tax rate applicable to the earnings before tax is 21.6% (previous year: 29.2%).

The item of tax-exempt earnings and permanent differences in earnings includes profit contributions from the FERI Group and the tax-free capital gains of MLP Hyp GmbH.

Non-deductible expenses result from entertainment expenses, gifts, as well as non-deductible operating expenses incurred in the context of tax-exempt dividends and capital gains, Supervisory Board remuneration, business tax additions and other relevant factors.

The tax deferrals result from the balance sheet items as follows:
 

The deferred tax expense recognised under other comprehensive income outside the income statement is € 1,502 thsd (previous year: € 636 thsd).

Tax refund claims include € 6,906 thsd (previous year: € 9,378 thsd) of corporation tax and € 5,209 thsd (previous year: € 5,515 thsd) of trade tax. The major portion of € 12,090 thsd (previous year: € 14,668 thsd) is attributable to MLP AG.

Tax liabilities are made up of € 1,712 thsd (previous year: € 2,638 thsd) of corporation tax and € 1,935 thsd (previous year: € 1,369 thsd) of trade tax, of which € 2,511 thsd (previous year: € 333 thsd) is attributable to MLP AG.

The tax liabilities are due to taxes on the income and profit of the individual companies based on the corresponding national tax regime. Contingent tax liabilities are shown under deferred tax liabilities.

As of December 31, 2016, MLP established a provision of € 2.5 million for anticipated retrospective tax payments arising from a tax audit by the fiscal authorities. In two disputed cases, MLP anticipates being able to assert its legal position based on the expert’s reports available. In this respect, MLP has recognised an asset for the retrospective tax payment made.
 

18 Earnings per share

The calculation for the basic and diluted earnings per share is based on the following data:
  

The basic and diluted earnings per share are € 0.13 (previous year: € 0.18).