Write-down for impairment losses

With a view to promoting the harmonization of the financial statements prepared by those European companies which do not adopt IAS/IFRS but comply with national regulations, the Directive 2013/34/EU introduces specific provisions on value adjustments of fixed assets. This is a critical evaluation procedure in the context of financial statement preparation. Indeed, the debate on value adjustments has been going on for long internationally. This chapter analyses point by point the provisions dedicated to the value adjustments of fixed assets in the eight EU Member States examined in this book (e.g. Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK). Whenever relevant, it underlines the room for discretion granted to the Member States and examines the implementation choices made by each Member State. National regulations on impairment loss recognition and accounting standards (if relevant) are reviewed, commented on, and confronted. Such a comprehensive analysis of how different jurisdictions have transposed the Directive into national law allows similarities and differences among Member States to emerge, thus contributing to extant knowledge on the current level of harmonization of the discipline on value adjustments.