The true and fair principle in Italy: Impact of tax legislation on final financial statements assessments.

The true and fair view in much Italian company is not applied in financial reporting. The company often applies a different principle which is affected by tax legislation. This “new” principle can be called: the “tax true and fiscally fair” principle. An empirical research I conducted in Italy has shown that Italian financial statements are “contaminated” by regulations that differ from accounting standards. In fact, many Italian financial statements are not prepared according to national and/or international accounting standards, but rather based on tax laws upon the occurrence of fiscal interference in the final financial statements assessments, the balance sheet and income statement can no longer be considered true and correct as they are influenced by regulations that have nothing to do with the determination of the valuations of the financial statement