First time adoption of IFRS/IAS and impairment test

The research focuses on the emerging practices in Italy in performing the impairment test after the first time adoption of IFRS/IAS by listed companies and financial entities. The research group first examines some theoretical issues, regarding the impairment test, that seem particularly relevant such as, inter alia: - the impact of taxes in the calculation of the discounting rate and expected cash flows; - the measurement of the carrying amount of the cash generating unit, which is necessary when the object of the impairment test is goodwill or an asset which does not generate cash flows independently from other assets; - the valuation techniques used to evaluate the cash generating units, and in particular the emerging of different approaches polarised towards market models or discounting of future cash/earnings flows models. The theoretical analysis is conducted on the basis of the framework provided by the relevant accounting standard, IAS 36, also taking into account the principles stated by the academic literature. The second part of the paper analyses specific financial statements of Italian listed companies to verify the relevance of the above mentioned issues and how those issues have been addressed in practice.