关于非审计服务与独立性的研究述评

关于注册会计师独立性的讨论一直是会计学术界的热点,本文从非审计服务是否会影响注册会计师的独立性出发,对相关文献进行了分类总结。结果表明,虽然安然事件后美国SEC严格限制了注册会计师从事非审计业务的范围,但是从目前已有的研究文献来看,关于从事非审计服务是否影响注册会计师独立性,学术界尚未形成统一的观点。     

业界

<正>国务院金融委:引导注册会计师行业规范有序发展国务院金融委将于近期推出的金融改革措施中,包括引导注册会计师行业规范有序发展,督导会计师事务所完善质量控制体系,制定调整会计师事务所执业管理、切实提高审计质量的实施方案,完善会计师事务所管理格局。出台会计师事务所从事证券服务业务备案管理办法,取消会计师事务所从事证券服务业务资质审批。     

非审计服务对审计独立性的影响及对策

随着注册会计师行业竞争的日趋激烈,非审计服务收入占会计师事务所总收入的比重日益俱增,并逐步取代审计服务成为注册会计师业务体系中的"主角"。然而随着近年来上市公司丑闻不断的发生,引起社会公众对非审计服务是否影响审计独立性高度关注。本文从审计独立性的基本层面出发,对注册会计师提供非审计服务对审计独立性的积极和消极影响进行了探讨,立足于注册会计师行业非审计服务发展的现状,提出了注册会计师行业对非审计服务的发展策略。     

浅议注册会计师职业责任保险与审计风险

《注册会计师法》第2条规定:"注册会计师是依法取得注册会计师证书并接受委托从事审计和会计咨询、会计服务业务的执业人员."对于注册会计师在从事法定业务中要承担的法律责任,《注册会计师法》和《独立审计准则》分别作了相应的规定.     

浅析注册会计师的民事法律责任

注册会计师是指依法取得注册会计师证书并接受委托,从事审计和会计咨询、会计服务业务的执业人员。在我国,注册会计师不允许以个人名义执业,而是以所在会计师事务所的名义执业,由会计师事务所统一接受委托,承办包括审计业务和会计咨询、会计服务等各项业务。注册会计师的民事法律责任问题,是当今世界大多数国家所关切和忧心的问题。审计业务是注册会计师的主要业务,属于法定业务。注册会计师以审计这一特有的执业方式,对公司的财务数据发表意见,其结果直接影响股价变动或投资决策。当注册会计师对虚假财务报表进行审计并签发了无保留意见时,…     

开展非审计业务的体会与建议

注册会计师法第16条的规定,注册会计师在从事审计业务的同时,也可承办会计咨询和会计服务业务(本文称之为非审计业务)。从我们所的实践看,主要有代理记账,代理纳税申报,编制工程项目可行性研究报告,设计合同文本,设计会计管理和企业内部控制制度,从事投资、筹资、并购重组、管理咨询和税务咨询等。我们感到,通过开展非审计业务,可以明显地提高企业的经济效益和社会效益,也可有效地提高事务所员工的业务素质和工作能力,密切与客户的关系,促进审计业务的发展。具体有以下一些经验和体会。     

非审计服务对我国注册会计师审计独立性的影响研究

审计独立性是审计执业的基石,现代审计的灵魂,是审计人员的基本理念.随着注册会计师行业服务市场的发展变化,非审计服务所得收入在会计师事务所利润中的比重越来越大.而美国安然与安达信等事件的发生,引起了学术界对非审计业务的争论,争论的焦点集中在非审计服务是否损害审计独立性的问题上.本文通过对非审计服务与审计独立性关系的分析基础上,提出维护我国注册会计师审计独立性的对策     

会计师事务所业务发展前瞻

《注册会计师法》将注册会计师的业务规定为两大部分即审计和会计咨询、会计服务业务。从法律的角度来看，允许会计师事务所从事的业务相当广泛，给会计师事务所的业务发展留下了充足的空间。但由于种种原因导致我国会计师事务所的主要局限于审计、验资等传统业务。究其原因主要有以下几方面。     

强监管，促规范：会计师事务所信披新规施行（上）

<正>背景材料：为贯彻落实《国务院办公厅关于进一步规范财务审计秩序促进注册会计师行业健康发展的意见》（国办发[2021]30号）精神，适应股票发行注册制改革后市场对高质量会计信息和审计执业水平的需求，强化以信息披露为核心的监管理念，健全会计师事务所信息披露相关规则，提高证券审计市场透明度，近日，财政部、中国证监会印发《会计师事务所从事证券服务业务信息披露规定》（以下简称《披露规定》），对会计师事务所在证券服务领域的信息披露进行了详细规定。这一新规对于提升会计师事务所的透明度和责任意识具有重要意义。     

注册会计师承揽高校审计业务的探讨

正当前,注册会计师行业围绕服务经济社会发展的总要求,在巩固传统领域审计业务基础上,积极开拓新型鉴证与非鉴证业务。而高校审计渐成为这些新业务之一。本文拟结合注册会计师行业和高校审计业务需求等现状,探讨注册会计师承揽高校审计业务的相关问题。注册会计师承揽高校审计业务有三种形式:一是接受国家政府部门等委托,代表其开展国家审计;二是按照有关法律法规等规定,接受委托开展社会审计;三是高校直接委托,注册会计师承接高校内部审计外包业务。对于高校而言,前两种都是外部审计,第三种属内部审计。     

The joint determination of audit fees, non-audit fees, and abnormal accruals

Prior research has estimated piece-meal the determinants of audit fees, non-audit fees and abnormal accruals. Intuition, informal analysis, and a variety of theories suggest that audit fees, non-audit fees, and abnormal accruals are jointly determined. We address this endogeneity issue by modeling the confluence of audit fees, fees for non-audit services and abnormal accruals in a system of simultaneous equations. Our joint estimation provides a starting point to look simultaneously at several competing theories. Using audit and non-audit fee data from the UK for 1994–2000, we find evidence consistent with knowledge spillovers (or economies of scope) from auditing to non-audit services and from non-audit services to auditing. While knowledge spillovers from non-audit services to auditing have been found in prior research [e.g. see Simunic, 1984], the presence of knowledge spillovers from auditing to non-audit services is a new result. Contrary to recent results in Ferguson et al. (2000) and Frankel et al. (2002), we do not find support for the assertion that fees for non-audit services increase abnormal accruals. In fact, contrary to the results in Ashbaugh et al. (2003) and Chung and Kallapur (2003), we find that non-audit fees decrease abnormal accruals, which we attribute to the productive effects of non-audit services. We also find evidence that audit fees increase abnormal accruals, consistent with behavioral theories of unconscious influence or bias in the auditor-client relation. The findings are robust to tests with US data. JEL Classification C30 · M40 · M41 · M49     

Audit Fees, Non-Audit Fees and Auditor Going-Concern Reporting Decisions in the United Kingdom

The accounting profession has come under increased scrutiny over recent years about the growing number of non-audit fees received from audit clients and the possible negative impact of such fees on auditor independence. The argument advanced is that providing substantial amounts of non-audit services to clients may make it more likely that auditors concede to the wishes of the client management when difficult judgments are made. Such concerns are particularly salient in the case of reporting decisions related to going-concern uncertainties for financially stressed clients.
 This study empirically examines audit reports provided to financially stressed companies in the United Kingdom and the magnitude of audit and non-audit service fees paid to the company's auditors. We find that the magnitude of both audit fees and non-audit fees are significantly associated with the issuance of a going-concern modified audit opinion. In particular, financially stressed companies with high audit fees are more likely to receive a going-concern modified audit opinion, whereas companies with high non-audit fees are less likely to receive a going-concern modified audit opinion. Additional analyses indicate that the results are generally robust across alternative model and variable specifications. Overall, evidence supports the contention that high non-audit fees have a detrimental effect on going-concern reporting judgments for financially stressed U.K. companies.     

我国注册会计师行业发展状况的分析与研究:成就与意义、问题与挑战、启示与建议

本文利用我国注册会计师行业的历史数据,系统研究了我国注册会计师行业发展问题.研究发现,我国注册会计师行业在促进我国社会经济发展过程中发挥了积极作用,做出了显著贡献.与此同时,也存在因不当审计行为招致的行政处罚、诉讼仲裁案件趋于增长和近年来屡屡遭遇声誉危机事件等问题,未来发展也面临行业过度竞争、薪酬竞争力不足、事务所分所...     

An Assessment of the Provisions of Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 on Non-audit Services and Audit Firm Tenure: Evidence from Spain

On May 27, 2014, Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Aiming to enhance audit quality, the new regulation establishes important limitations to the selling of non-audit services by the audit firm to audit clients and a maximum tenure of ten years with the audit firm. However, it should be noted that the extant research has not consistently supported that non-audit services or long tenures impair the quality of audits. This research studies whether these provisions have been empirically associated with reduced audit quality for Spain. Because of its low litigation risk, the potentially negative impact of both non-audit services and tenure on audit quality should be clearly observed in the Spanish audit market. Nevertheless, we do not find significantly lower levels of audit quality associated with either non-audit services or long audit tenures. However, these results are conditional on the validity of using abnormal accruals to measure audit quality.     

Effects of auditor-provided tax services on book-tax differences and on investors' mispricing of book-tax differences

Over the last decade, the joint provision of audit and non-audit services has been criticized for compromising auditor independence and affecting audit quality. Since 2005, the SEC has enacted rules restricting the types of non-audit services audit firms can provide clients. While most non-audit services are prohibited, a range of tax services are still allowed. Therefore, if compromises can emerge from allowing non-audit services, permitting tax services could be problematic. This study investigates the effect of auditor-provided tax services (ATS) on firms' levels of book-tax differences and on investors' mispricing of book-tax differences. Using a propensity-score matched sample from 2000 to 2013, I find strong evidence that firms acquiring ATS exhibit a low level of temporary book-tax differences, which in turn mitigate investors' levels of firms' mispricing. These results do not support regulators' claim that the provision of ATS compromises auditor independence. Instead, it suggests that purchasing ATS can improve overall accounting quality through knowledge spillover and thus help investors better price the value of firms.     

The effects of corporate governance and audit and non-audit fees on IPO Value

This paper examines the effects of non-executive board members, audit committee composition and financial expertise, and fees paid to audit firms on the value of 375 UK initial public offerings (IPOs). Empirical findings show that underpricing decreases in audit fees whereas it increases in non-audit fees. A higher proportion of non-executive directors on the firm’s board and audit committees with a higher proportion of non-executive directors and financial accounting expertise of their members positively moderate the inter-relationships between underpricing and both audit and non-audit fees paid by companies going through an IPO. Further investigations using the adjusted price-to-book value as a proxy for firm value at IPO confirm our main findings that internal governance mechanisms may complement services provided by the auditors in terms of generating higher valuations. Controlling for the simultaneous determination of audit and non-audit fees, our results remain consistent.     

Are audit partners’ compensation and audit quality related to their consulting revenues?

Recent accounting scandals have triggered renewed interest in the debate concerning whether audit firms should be banned from providing consulting services. Compared to the voluminous studies on consulting services to audit clients (i.e., non-audit services, hereafter NAS), little has been done to investigate consulting services to non-audit clients (hereafter CS). This study examines whether audit partners' revenues from CS are associated with: i) partners' compensation, and ii) audit quality (AQ), while controlling for revenues from NAS and auditing. We choose the Norwegian setting because of the unique and proprietary data on CS at the audit partner level. Our results provide initial evidence that partners' compensation is positively associated with their revenues generated from CS. Regarding AQ, our findings indicate no relation between AQ and partners' revenues from CS. This study contributes to the recent debate on multidisciplinary audit firms and should be of interest to regulators, audit firms, and users of audited financial statements.     

Non-audit services and financial reporting quality: evidence from 1978 to 1980

We provide evidence on the long-standing concern about the potential conflicts of interest of auditors that provide clients with non-audit services using rarely explored non-audit services fee data from 1978 to 1980. In this setting, we find evidence of improved earnings quality when auditors provide non-audit services, especially those related to information services. This is consistent with better audit quality resulting from knowledge spillovers in the joint offering of audit and consulting services. Events related to the 1982 repeal of mandatory non-audit services disclosures are associated with a small positive stock price reaction, suggesting that the disclosure repeal has no adverse economic consequences. Furthermore, following the repeal we find no change in the earnings quality of client firms. In sum, our data suggest that non-audit services offered by audit firms can be associated with improved audit and reporting quality in client firms via auditors’ reputational incentives, synergies, and knowledge transfers.     

Do Big-Four affiliates earn audit fee premiums in emerging markets?

The paper investigates whether Big-Four affiliated (B4A) firms earn audit premiums in an emerging economy context, using Bangladesh as a case. The joint determination of audit and non-audit service fees is also examined using a sample of 122 companies listed in the Dhaka Stock Exchange. Our findings reveal that although the B4A firms do not generally earn a fee premium in Bangladesh, they charge higher audit fees for clients not purchasing non-audit services. This suggests that the B4A firms may actually lower audit fees to attract non-audit services, and cross subsidizes audit fees through non-audit-services fees. The lack of a B4A premium implies that there is lack of quality audit in emerging markets. We also document that audit and non-audit service fees are jointly determined in Bangladesh. Thus, we provide evidence of joint determination of audit and non-audit service fees in an emerging economy context.     

Non-audit Services and Auditor Independence: New Zealand Evidence

Abstract:  This paper examines evidence in New Zealand about whether auditors providing more non-audit services are less independent. Three sets of tests are used to address the issue. The first examines whether there is a relation between non-audit fees and audit fees, the second examines whether there is a relation between non-audit fees and audit report qualification or modification, and the third examines whether there is a relation between non-audit fees and stability of audit tenure. The results suggest a potential for the impairment of auditor independence in appearance when auditors provide non-audit services but no evidence of any impact on independence of mind.