Taxes

The effective tax rate decreased from 149.2 per cent to 21.3 per cent. The deviation from the expected weighted tax rate of 21.0 per cent was mainly due to unrecognised deferred tax assets on tax loss carryforwards, the impact of the Swiss participation exemption and other non-taxable items as well as the tax effects on investments. The latter include tax-neutral changes in value arising from the reassessment of investments in associates / joint ventures and the impact resulting from write-downs and reversals of write-downs on investment book values under commercial law (without any deferred tax consequences) and reduced tax expenses for 2023.