The adoption of a Comprehensive Income Statement in Italy: has the time of a new disclosure come?

Nowadays financial and economic performances achieved in the period and their projections in the future are of particular relevance to all users of financial statements. Although they utilize and search for different financial information, all of them require comprehensive, appropriate, timeliness, relevance and reliable information. This study examines the lack of information provided by current Italian and European forms of Income Statement as fundamental instrument for financial and economic disclosure and how this information could not be useful to users in making their economic decisions, especially now that IFRSs will be adopted for preparing separate and only financial statements of Italian non-financial listed companies. If until now, Italian and European GAAP have preferred accounting principles to determine distributable incomes, IFRSs’ adoption will move our care in determining comprehensive performances and companies’ assets and liabilities expressed at current value. In such cases a new form of Income Statement is required. In this study a proposal of Comprehensive Income Statement is given. It considers the different Italian concepts of realization, prudence and restrictions on fair value gains distributability, as well as the new IFRSs’ accounting measurements required by their adoption. Such Statement fosters the quality of information to investors for their economic decision-making, taking into account the law requirements concerning capital maintenance.