Provisions provide one of the few opportunities to influence the reported annual results within the strictly regulated accounting framework of German commercial law, in accordance with the principles of proper bookkeeping. However, the freedoms mandated by commercial law have recently lost their attractiveness due to the increasingly limited options for recognizing provisions in the tax balance sheet. The decoupling of the tax balance sheet from the commercial balance sheet has largely been implemented in the area of recognition and valuation regulations for provisions; the principle of relevance no longer applies in the traditional sense. The author clearly presents the principles of provision accounting in terms of both the basis and the amount in commercial and tax balance sheets. Numerous examples and references are also included.