Assessments of plant, machinery and, more generally, of fixed assets are carried in many circumstances, some of which are required under the following extraordinary transactions:

• transfer of ownership to another entity (disposals, mergers, spin-offs, transfers etc.);
• control of the balance sheet (monetary revaluation or economic allocation to fixed assets of the merger deficit, which guarantees, certification of financial statements, etc.);
• comparison of various alternatives resulting from the use of different fiscal policy (determination of useful lives, simulating the effects of the choice of different methods of depreciation on economic performance, tax consequences resulting from the alienation of property, etc.);
• assessment company or its branches;
• preparing of investment budget and calculations of affordability;
• reconstruction or breakdown of the historical cost of special tax classifications.

Depending on the objectives of the intervention, a view only asset, various assumptions of value can identified:

• Present Value in Use, which represents the today’s investment necessary to achieve - with modern materials and technologies - the complex of goods estimated, net of physical depreciation and functional obsolescence. It therefore does not represent an exchange value, but assuming the value attributable in the case of industry operating
• Market Value, which expresses - in contrast to the previous case - the amount obtainable in the event of sale, assuming a period of time sufficient to complete the transaction at current market conditions. This configuration of value then, in addition to the factors mentioned above, also takes into account the commercial attractiveness of the asset.
• Liquidation Value, which is adopted in case of cessation of business, of requests for guarantees, of a foreclosure property or prolonged insufficient prospects of profitability. Represents the minimum value assigned to assets and requires the interest, however, intermediates or alternative users.