Le deroghe contabili nel contesto dell'emergenza COVID-19: prime evidenze empiriche

The COVID-19 outbreak has notably influenced companies’ performance, even threatening their survival. In such a context, the Italian government introduced several temporary exceptions to the measurement criteria required by national accounting principles; these exceptions could apply to the 2020 financial statements. Against this background, this study investigates the adoption of the temporary exceptions and related disclosure. To this aim, we hand-collected information provided by 258 Italian companies in the 2020 financial statements. Results highlight some critical issues. Evidence shows a limited use of the exceptions related to the going concern principle and the neutralization of losses. By contrast, companies frequently resorted to measures such as the postponement of depreciation charges and the asset revaluation, which allowed improving the overall financial position and performance. Moreover, disclosure provided on the exceptions is limited and scarcely informative to users.