A divulgação da perda por impairment nas empresas brasileiras de capital aberto

Abstract

The current global scenario whose foundations are based on the economic globalization process has resulted in the need for companies to prepare their financial statements based on uniform standards to enable standardized accounting reports with the necessary homogeneity, thus providing the most efficient way the users needs for accounting information who have been facing several difficulties during the analysis of these reports, due to the diversity of models and information submitted. This situation got worse because of the increase of importance the accounting information has taken nowadays, as it has became a key source for decision taking in regard to the economic performance of companies. In this context, it was introduced in Brazil the process of convergence to international standards of accounting which has helped to end the asymmetry of accounting information. With Brazil's adherence to the convergence to these standards, one of the procedures is the realization of the impairment test, by means of CPC-01, issued by the Accounting Pronouncements Committee and approved by the Securities Commission with Resolution No. 527, which deals with the loss of the recoverability of assets. This rule provides that when an asset or group of assets is recorded by a value greater than the benefits it can provide, it should be recognized a value of loss in the income, denominating assets impairment loss. In this context the aim of this research is to analyze the compliance of impairment required by the CPC-01 and the position of the independent auditors in their assessments, in the absence of all or part of these requirements regarding the disclosure of the impairment loss on assets. From this on we build up the methodological procedures. First, we defined what are the requirements of the rule, founded upon the theoretical constructs of the research. We adopted a qualitative research. On that basis, we analyzed a sample composed of fifty-five companies which were listed in the IBOVESPA index over in the first quarter of 2010. Of these twelve showed impairment and measured. The Data collection took place by means of obtaining the financial statements of the years 2008 and 2009 published on websites of CVM, BOVESPA and also sites of the twelve companies which made the disclosure. The results show that six companies failed to comply with the requirements of disclosure asked by the CPC-01. In the reports of the independent auditors there are not reservations about this, because the auditors only point a Financial Statement if the omission is relevant to these criteria and varies according to the volume of a company's operations, concluding that there is still asymmetry in the accounting information despite efforts to standardize accounting. The results indicate that the compliance with the requirements for disclosure for the impairment loss laid in the CPC-01 occurred in a partial way in the majority of the companies surveyed.