What is Mutual Purpose

Italian cooperative organizations contribute sensibly to the national growth and development, pursuing a social function of economic redistribution. Since they are based on the mutuality principle, the related accountancy and taxation systems follow such logic, in particular as far as the patronage refunds discipline is concerned. The aim of the chapter is to advance the understanding of such flows; the scope is pursued through an accounting records' comparative analysis based on the main legislative acts and professional and scholar literature. The results converge into a cause-and-effect model built according to a system dynamics perspective.