20 Deferred tax assets

Deferred tax assets are stated net of amounts of deferred tax liabilities that can be offset for €3,558 million (€3,630 million at December 31, 2012).

Net decrease of €365 million included: (i) a write-down of €954 million that was recognized on deferred tax assets recorded by the parent company Eni SpA and other Italian subsidiaries which were part of the consolidated accounts for Italian tax purposes. Management recorded a write-down on those deferred tax assets to reflect a lower likelihood that those deferred tax assets can be recovered in future periods due to an expected reduction in taxable income generated in Italy; (ii) a decrease of €766 million of deferred tax assets in relation to the renegotiation of the contractual terms and the duration extension of some exploration and development licenses as a compensation of the renounce to the deferred tax assets recoverability related to cost incurred and not yet recovered for tax purposes.

Deferred tax assets are further described in Note 30 – Deferred tax liabilities.

Income taxes are described in Note 40 – Income tax expense.