ABSTRACT: (STILL UNCERTAIN THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE “RISTORNO” OF COOPERATIVES, BETWEEN LAWS AND TECHNICAL ACCOUNTING RULES. OPINIONS IN COMPARISON). In the professional practice, supported by technical- accounting rules and by some doctrinal opinions, the surplus arising from the mutual trade between cooperative society and members, is assigned as “ristorno” and represented as a negative component of income. Because the result of years is represented modest or even of no value, with the result that isn’t not properly entered the profitability achieved by the cooperative society, even with alteration of the parameters of mutuality. In our system there isn’t any rules of law having the force to authorize the cooperative to derogate from the legal regulation of corporations. The fact that our legislator hasn’t defined the nature of “ristorno” causes uncertainties. Trough the technique of “ristorno”, a cooperative attributes the mutual advantage achieved by partners by means of two different procedures: the immediate or deferred allocation. With the first method, partners get from the company trade at lower prices or wages higher than the current market. In the second case, the mutual advantage is given through the “ristorni”, which represents shares of profit normally assigned when approving the budget, in proportion to exchanges carried out with shareholders. The doctrinal and case law are opposed. However, the cooperative, which may take the form of corporations or that of the limited company, to prepare its financial statements must observe the legal regulation established for corporations. Moreover is disputed the notion of cooperative’s income. Neverthless, it is necessary to carry out, before the distribution of the “ristorno”, the obligatory provisions (legal reserve and mutual funds) and to distribuite in such a way as “ristorno” only the remaing part after these provisions.
KEYWORDS: cooperatives and “ristorni”, earnings performance, accounting of cooperatives
