PwC, a tax and legal services firm, audited Kutxa's 2011 fiscal year accounts that were ratified by a general assembly last March 24. In 2011, the last year in which the savings bank from Guipúzcoa operated alone (in January 2012 it merged with Kutxabank), it declared net earnings of 10.44 million euros. It registered a sharp decline in profits compared to 2010.
PwC's report points out two deductions that call into cuestion 2010 and 2011 financial results of both sides of merged bank.
In the first deduction, included under points 2a and 2b in PwC's report, the auditor says that a total of 201.7 million euros were accounted for as "deductions on their combined net profits." But to its knowledge, that amount should have been filed as "deductions on combined profits and losses."
PwC clarified that "correcting these errors" does not necessitate a change to the merged bank's tax obligation," so the banks are stable and trustworthy. Still, the corrections will have an influence on Kutxa's 2011 tax base.
More specific, PwC explains that 119.2 million euros corresponds to depreciation of sold financial portfolios, which Kutxa filed as deductions against net profits. It also factored in 82.5 million in deductions that correspond to losses incurred on real estate assets.
