Hi Christian,

This

I've never seen positive or negative permanent differences. Usually, you find "permanent differences" which are described below:


The different basis of arriving at profits for tax purposes derives from two main sources. Firstly, certain types of income are tax-free and certain types of expenditure are disallowable, giving rise to 'permanent differences' between taxable and accounting profits. Permanent differences also arise where there are tax allowances or charges with no corresponding amount in the financial statements.

This is a typical table found in financial statements:

The reconciliation of the income for the year per books to the taxable income for corporate income tax purposes is as follows:

Euros
--------------------------------
Increase Decrease Amount

Income for the year per books
Corporate income tax
Permanent differences
Timing differences:
Current year
Prior years
Offset of prior years' tax losses


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Note added at 28 mins (2003-11-04 10:39:12 GMT)
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This is another typical paragraph:

l) Corporate income tax
The expense for corporate income tax of each year is calculated on the basis of book income before taxes, increased or decreased, as appropriate, by the permanent differences from taxable income, net of tax relief and tax credits, excluding tax withholdings and prepayments.