So ist das Leben /That's life / C'est la vie / Así es la vida / È la vita ...

such amounts have been combined with the reserves in
previous years on account of their reserve characteristic. In
the case of the deconsolidation of the subsidiaries in the year
under review, the netting of the goodwill against the
reserves without impact on profit or loss that was carried out
at the time of first consolidation has been kept.
Minority interests in the equity capital subject to consolidation
and in the results of the subsidiary companies included in
consolidation have been shown in the compensating item for
minority interests.
The consolidation of a foreign-based logistics company at
equity has been effected in accordance with the book value
method. In this respect the valuation principles applied by this
associated company have been adopted without change.
Vorwerk’s share of profits from companies consolidated at
equity has been included in the profit and loss account as
income from participations.
2. Debt Consolidation
Amounts due as receivables or payables in respect of companies
within the consolidated group have been offset against
each other for dept consolidation purposes (§ 303 HGB).
3. Consolidation of Earnings
The consolidation of income and expenses contained in the
items shown in the consolidated profit and loss account comply
with § 305 HGB. Inter-company sales and the corresponding
expenses as well as the remaining inter-company income and
expenses from the consolidated companies’ profit and loss
accounts have been offset against each other.
Consolidated Financial Statements / Explanatory Notes / 57
4. Deferred Taxation
Deferred taxation is reported due to differences in the
approaches between the commercial and taxbase balance
sheets, insofar as such states a tax burden or relief. Moreover,
deferred taxation considers possible losses and interest carried
forward, provided they are expected to be taken up within the
next five years.
An excess of deferred tax assets over deferred tax liabilities is
not recognized in the individual financial statements.
Departing from this, the election to recognize this excess in the
consolidated financial statements pursuant to § 274 par. 1,
sentence 2 in conjunction with § 300 par. 2, sentence 2 HGB
has been exercised. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are
netted against one another when the preconditions for such
prevail. For the purposes of the consolidated financial statements,
an aggregated figure of the items is reported pursuant
to § 274 HGB (§ 306 sentence 6 HGB).
Deferred taxes for differences arising from the first time recognition
of goodwill are not reported. Additionally, deferred
taxes are not scheduled for differences between the taxbase of
subsidiaries or associated companies and the commercial
valuation of the net assets reported in the consolidated financial
statements.
As of 31 December 2011, the balance of future tax burden/relief
calculated on the basis of the different approaches applied for
the commercial and taxbase balance sheets ensued mainly for
from the amounts receivables and payables from/to affiliated
companies, inventories and the provisions for pensions. When
calculating taxes for consolidation entries affecting profits
pursuant to § 306 HGB, a uniform Group-wide average tax rate
of 30 percent has been basically applied to dept consolidation
and the interim profit elimination; otherwise companyspecific
tax rates have been applied. The calculation of deferred
taxes in the individual financial statements is based on tax
rates applying to the individual companies.