Il principio della substance over form alla luce del Decreto Legislativo n. 139 del 18 agosto 2015 e del nuovo OIC 11

The Substance over Form principle is presented, in the various conceptual frameworks of IAS/IASB as the necessary way to provide for a faithful representation of transactions and phenomenon to be recognised. The faithful representation is a translation of the anglo-saxon term “ true and fair view ” and expresses a standard, that is to say a behavior to be followed by users to reach the objective assigned to financial information. According to The Conceptual Framework for Financial Reporting (2018), financial information must be faithful to the financial situation of the entity. Financial reports represent economic phenomena in words and numbers. To be useful, financial information must not only represent relevant phenomena, but it must also faithfully represent the substance of the phenomena that it purports to represent. In many circumstances, the substance of an economic phenomenon and its legal form are the same. If they are not the same, providing information only about the legal form would not faithfully represent the economic phenomenon. Therefore, the Substance over Form Principle is the way to ensure that financial information faithfully represents the financial reality of the entity. The principle has been included in Directive 2013/34/EU and it has been codified in the Italian Civil Code too (D.Lgs. 139/2015). The paper analyzes the effective scope of the principle within the Italian regulatory framework and the current provisions of the OIC 11.