مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد اثر ابهام در یک استاندارد حسابرسی بر استقلال حسابرس – الزویر 2017

Abstract

We examine the relation between nonaudit fees and SOX 404 opinions on the effectiveness of a client’s internal control over financial reporting. We find a negative association between nonaudit fees and the auditor’s propensity to issue an adverse SOX 404 opinion during 2004–2006 (when AS2 was the applicable standard), but not in 2007 or 2008 (when AS5 was the applicable standard). Our results hold when we control for office size and time trend and examine tax and nontax nonaudit fees separately. These findings suggest that AS5 reduced ambiguity relative to AS2 and improved auditor independence. Our paper contributes to two literature streams: (1) the sparse literature on the adverse effects associated with ambiguity (lack of precision) in an auditing standard (Willekens and Simunic, 2007, Ye and Simunic, 2013), and (2) the AS5 literature by documenting that AS5 contributed to a more effective audit via greater auditor independence.

Introduction

We investigate the effect of ambiguity (i.e., verbal probability expressions that are subject to between-auditor variations in interpretation) in the PCAOB’s Auditing Standard No. 2 (AS2) on auditor decision making. Specifically, we examine the impact of the ambiguity in AS2 on auditor independence by testing the relation between nonaudit fees and the 2002 Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) 404 control audit opinion on the client’s internal control over financial reporting (ICFR). 1 Basically, SOX Section 404 requires the auditor to issue an audit opinion on the effectiveness of the client’s ICFR in addition to the traditional financial statement audit opinion.