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Income statement (deeper)

Pre-Tax Income EBT

A company's profit after all expenses except income tax — the base that income tax is applied to.

Part of the Reading Financial Statements course · Lesson 11 of 33
Formula
Pre-Tax Income = EBIT − Interest Expense (or) Pre-Tax Income = Net Income + Income Tax Expense

What it is

Pre-tax income, also called earnings before tax (EBT), is the profit remaining after every expense — including interest — has been deducted, but before income tax. It is the line on the income statement directly above net income. From pre-tax income you subtract income-tax expense to arrive at net income.

Why it matters

Pre-tax income shows how profitable the business is independent of its tax bill, which can swing year to year due to credits, loss carryforwards, or one-off items. Comparing pre-tax income to the tax expense also reveals the company's effective tax rate.

How it's calculated

Take EBIT and subtract interest expense (or take net income and add back income-tax expense). The result is the income on which income tax is calculated.

How Quintarthai uses it

Pre-tax income is shown alongside the full income statement on the Financials 10-yr and Classic View tabs of a company's deep-analysis page — open a company page.

Cross-border note. US federal corporate tax differs from Canadian federal-plus-provincial corporate tax, so two otherwise similar companies can post similar pre-tax income but quite different net income; look at pre-tax income to compare operating-plus-financing performance without the tax-regime distortion.

FAQ

Why look at pre-tax income instead of net income?
Net income mixes in the tax bill, which can be distorted by one-time credits, deferred taxes, or loss carryforwards. Pre-tax income isolates the business and financing performance, making year-over-year and company-to-company comparisons cleaner.
How do I get the effective tax rate from it?
Divide income-tax expense by pre-tax income. For example, $20 of tax on $100 of pre-tax income is a 20% effective tax rate.
Related terms
See Pre-Tax Income on a real company
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