Gli oneri di decommissioning. Evidenze empiriche dell’informativa di bilancio e le prassi di controllo di gestione.

The aim of this dissertation is to examine decommissioning costs from a corporate reporting as well as a management accounting perspective. Decommissioning costs are very important for companies and governments thanks to their economic, social and environmental effects. 2016 OECD report highlights that decommissioning activities are destined to grow in the future, giving rise to a considerable amount of work and creating a large and competitive market. Furthermore, these activities have a duration of several decades, involving the use of significant economic resources. This work examines the annual report of the Italian non financial companies listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in 2015 and studies the characteristics of the disclosure included in the financial statements relating the contingent liabilities of the decommissioning activities. This analysis deepens international legislation of the balance sheet’s liabilities, its objectives and its recognition and evaluation criteria. The main research method used is qualitative analysis. The work draws up indicators to quantify the information quality in order to identified best practice situations. An in-depth study of the theoretical assumptions and management control practices. An empirical case was carried out on an investment evaluation relating to decommissioning cost in order to appreciate the effects of which this erroneous quantification can lead. This research contributes to the doctrine on financial disclosure of decommissioning cost highlighting the practice in use among corporations and the importance of certain information which, if present in financial reports, allows a considerable improvement in the quality of external information. It also shows that management control practices that are not coherent with the purposes of the discounted cash flow methodology can bring distorted financial results with negative effects on the company, on stakeholders and from an environmental prospective.