It stands for below the line; in the income statement (profit and loss/ PnL) it describes income and expenditure (expenses) after taxes and other non-operating items, i.e, revenue and expenses not relating to a firm’s operations; the “line” refers to gross profit (GP). These items are extraordinary in nature: they are shown below the amount of the gross profit of the firm during a specific period of time.  Below the line items are: non-operating expenses, interest, and taxes (tax provisions). Below the line does not affect profit and loss account (reported profit) hence it does not tell much about the real financial performance and health of the company.

Below the line also denotes the revenue items in a government budget that come after reporting taxes and government expenditure.