Notes to the income statement
 

8 Revenue

Other commission and fees include revenue from property brokerage of € 13,989 thsd (previous year: € 11,345 thsd). The revenue from the interest rate business includes negative interest from lending and money market transactions of € 1,146 thsd (previous year: € 78 thsd).

9 Other revenue

For more information on income from the reversal of provisions, please refer to Note 27.

The income from securities of the participation programme essentially comprises income in the context of the sale of certificates in the financial year 2017. Please refer to Note 31 for further details.

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.

Among other things, sundry other income includes advertising subsidies, income from the performance of IT services, as well as income from cost reimbursement claims.
  

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 € 630 thsd (previous year: € 829 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

Previous year impairments include impairment losses for a software development of € 10,399 thsd. There was no impairment loss in the financial year 2017.

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 MLP 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 € 2,487 thsd in the financial year (previous year: € 2,106 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 Finanzberatung SE, 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 € 22 thsd (previous year: € 52 thsd) is attributable to interest income from deposits with financial institutions which were not included in the banking business segment and € 26 thsd (previous year: € 260 thsd) is attributable to income from the discounting of provisions. In addition to this, other interest and similar income includes negative interest on bank deposits of € -85 thsd (previous year: € -31 thsd). Other interest and similar expenses include expenses from the accrued interest of other provisions totalling € 558 thsd (previous year: € 627 thsd).

17  Income taxes

The current taxes on income and profit include expenses of € -634 thsd (previous year: € -388 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: 13.53%) and amounts to 29.36% (previous year: 29.36%).

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 23.6% (previous year: 21.6%).

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

Non-deductible expenses result from consultancy fees in connection with Group restructuring measures, entertainment expenses, gifts, as well as non-deductible operating expenses incurred in the context of tax-exempt dividends and capital gains, Supervisory Board remuneration 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 € 48 thsd (previous year: € 1,502 thsd).

Tax refund claims include € 7,197 thsd (previous year: € 6,906 thsd) of corporation tax and € 5,149 thsd (previous year: € 5,209 thsd) of trade tax. The major portion of € 11,881 thsd (previous year: € 12,090 thsd) is attributable to MLP SE.

Tax liabilities are made up of € 5,588 thsd (previous year: € 1,712 thsd) of corporation tax and € 4,655 thsd (previous year: € 1,935 thsd) of trade tax. € 2,572 thsd (previous year: € 2,511 thsd) thereof relate to MLP SE and € 6,633 thsd (previous year: € 0 thsd) to MLP Finanzberatung SE.

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.
 

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 € 0.25 (previous year: € 0.13).