계속감사기간과 자본시장의 반응

최관 ( Kwan Choi ),박종일 ( Jong Il Park ),최성호 ( Sung Ho Choi ) 한국회계학회 2010 회계학연구 Vol.35 No.1

This paper investigates how investors and information intermediaries perceive auditor tenure when they evaluate quality of earnings. There are two contradicting viewpoints, one argues that audit quality increases with longer audit tenure because of improved audit expertise from superior client-specific knowledge, but the other views that audit quality decreases with longer tenure because of auditors` high dependence on the client firms. Financial Supervisory Service(FSS) made a policy, in 2003, that required all audit firms not to provide audit service longer than 6 years after 2011 in Korea. All auditors should end their audit service within 6 years. FSS views that mandatory limits on audit tenure will improve audit quality by reducing client firms` influence over auditors and increasing auditor`s independence. However, all audit firms have strongly objected the mandatory auditor rotation system. They insist that longer tenure increases audit quality because auditors can get more client specific knowledge. After 5 years of enactment, FSS announced in 2008 that it would rescind the mandatory audit rotation policy after 2011. It turned over its former decision. There is few research in Korea that investigates the impact of audit tenure on the perception of market participants and on the audit quality. This paper analyzes the relationship between audit tenure and audit quality perceived by capital market participants. Capital market based approach is used because academics, regulatory institutions, and practitioners often emphasize the importance of capital market perception. The results of this paper are as follows. First, investors evaluate earnings quality more favorably as audit tenure becomes longer. This tendency manifests when audit tenure is more than 6 years. The result means that capital market participants give more credit to the financial statements audited by auditors with longer tenure. Second, credit rating agencies also perceive reported earnings more reliable for firms with longer audit tenure. They evaluate credit and bond ratings more favorably for firms with longer tenure. Third, using earnings coefficients from a regression of one year ahead earnings forecasts on reported earnings, financial analysts evaluate earnings quality higher with lengthy auditor-client relationship. Fourth, when we divide sample period into two sub periods, before and after mandatory regulation, we find that market participants perceive auditor tenure less favorable after mandatory auditor change policy than before the change. This means that the market investors view the audit tenure less reliable information when they evaluate earnings quality under mandatory change environment. Based on the research results, we can conclude that it is reasonable policy decision that FSS rescinds the mandatory auditor rotation after 2011.

The Effect of Auditor’s Length of Audit on Corporate Tax Avoidance

배성호 한국세무학회 2019 세무와 회계저널 Vol.20 No.6

Understanding of external auditor’s behavior is important for higher audit quality. And the audit quality is an essential factor of firms’ sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to verify auditor behaviors toward corporate tax avoidance via auditor tenure. In particular, this study examines how the auditor independence issue is reflected in corporate tax avoidance. This study examines the association between auditor tenure and corporate tax avoidance by Using 2,588 firm-year observations from KOSPI in the period 2001-2010. We find that corporate tax avoidance increased with auditor tenure, reflecting, the client-beneficial tax planning, which minimizes tax payments that could be more offered when the auditor tenure increased. This suggests that the longer auditor tenure, the more likely auditor’s independence could be compromised. For the robustness of the empirical analysis results, factor analysis was performed on the four tax avoidance measures used in this study. And 2-stage analysis was performed. The additional analyses results supported the main result. This study contributes to the literature by extending the auditing and tax literature on the examination of auditor behavior toward corporate tax avoidance. Secondly, by investigating the impact of auditor tenure on corporate tax avoidance, this study proposes additional evidence regarding the debate on auditor independence. In addition, it is expected that the empirical results of this study will contribute to predicting the effect of the periodic designation system for auditors scheduled to be implemented in Korea from November 1, 2019.

외부감사인 강제교체에 따른 보수주의 성향

김선미(Seon Mi Kim),유승원(Seung Weon Yoo) 한국경영학회 2011 경영학연구 Vol.40 No.5

We investigate the relationship between auditor conservatism and auditor changes. In specific, we explore whether the mandatory or voluntary auditor changes affect auditor conservatism during the sample period of 2006-2008. Auditor selection mechanism has been switched from the auditor assignment rule to the market competition rule in 1982, in order to improve the quality of financial information. However, the market competition rule is criticized for impairing auditor independence due to increased pressure on auditors who want a long-term audit engagement. In 2006, the Korean regulatory body introduces the mandatory auditor rotation rule which firms have to switch their incumbent auditors to new auditors if they are audited by the same auditors during the last 6 years. The rule intends to protect auditor independence. It is believed that auditors can maintain auditor independence because the mandatory auditor rotation rule provides the lower quasi-rent for new auditors (DeAngelo 1981; Geiger and Raghunandan 2002). Prior literature shows that the voluntary auditor changes under the market competition rule may affect the new auditors` audit decisions. In particular, the newly hired auditors prefer more conservative accounting treatments in order to reduce audit failure risks stemming from information asymmetry between the auditors and the new clients (Shin et al. 2007). Since the mandatory audit rotation rule allows the client firms freely choose the new auditors, the mandatorily changed auditors may face the identical audit risks faced by the voluntarily changed auditors. That is, regardless of the mandatory or voluntary changes, the newly hired auditors may ask more conservative accounting treatments in order to alleviate the audit risks from their lack of experiences with and knowledge of the new clients. On the contrary, the mandatorily changed auditors` audit risks may be different from the voluntarily changed audits` risks. While Dhaliwal et al. (1993) and Jenkins and Velury (2008) show that some firms have an incentive to voluntarily change their incumbent auditors to increase the reported earnings (i.e., earnings management), the firms that have to change their incumbent auditors due to the mandatory auditor rotation rule may not have an earnings management incentive. In other words, voluntarily changed auditors are likely to be more conservative for new client rather than mandatorily changed auditors, because auditors with voluntarily changes may face high audit risk that may cause the negative effect on the investors` decision (Hackenbrack and Hogan 2002). This argument leads to our hypothesis that the level of conservatism is lower when the firms change the incumbent auditors mandatorily than when they change the auditors voluntarily. Our model first uses the Penman and Zhang`s (2002) conservative measure. The results show that the C score and the Q score of the mandatorily changed auditors are lower than the voluntarily changed auditors: The coefficient for the dummy variable of the mandatory auditor change (MAN) is significantly negative at least 1% level in Penman and Zhang`s (2002) measure. We further use the Beaver and Ryan(2000), Basu`s (1997) and Ball and Shivakumar`s (2005) models for the conservatism measure. The results confirm that the new mandatorily changed auditors are less conservative than the voluntarily changed auditors. These results support the argument that the mandatorily changed auditors evaluate their audit risks lower than the voluntarily changed auditors` risks because the mandatory auditor changes are not occurred for the earnings management purpose and/or the newly hired auditors can research potential clients` business situations in advance. Additionally, we examine the Penman and Zhang`s (2002) conservative measure of the mandatorily and voluntarily changed auditors between KOSPI-listed firms and KOSDAQ-listed firms. We find that the new mandatorily changed auditors are less conservative

감사인 교체와 감사품질

박종일,곽수근 韓國公認會計士會 2007 회계·세무와 감사 연구 Vol.46 No.-

Auditor changes have received considerable attention from both regulators and academics. The regulator's interests are due to a concern that auditor changes are motivated by management opportunism. In spite of this concern, academic research finds little or no evidence of opportunistically motivated auditor changes. This study investigates the association between auditor change and the magnitude of discretionary accruals. Specifically, this paper investigates an alternative explanation for auditor changes. If there exist demands for high-quality audit service, it is possible that client firms change to high-quality auditors who lower the discretionary accruals from lower-quality auditors who allow higher level of the discretionary accruals. However, if the client firms change auditors in order to manipulate accounting numbers more freely, it is possible that the former auditor is the auditor who provide higher quality audit service than the new auditor. As a result, the magnitude of the discretionary accruals would increase after the auditor change. With 2,762 firm-year observations collected over the period from year 2000 to 2005, we empirically test these predictions. The sample firms are all listed firms in Korean Stock Exchange, December year-end firms, and firms do not belong to banking industry. Among total sample, 332 firm-year observations are those who change auditors (i.e., auditor change sample) and the remaining 2,430 firm-year observations are those who do not change auditors (i.e., auditors no-change sample). The discretionary accruals are measured by using modified Jones model (Dechow et al. 1995) and performance-matched discretionary accruals (Kothari et al. 2005). The empirical results are summarized as follows. First, compared with auditor no-change sample, auditor change sample shows significantly higher level of positive (i.e., income-increasing) discretionary accruals at the last year with incumbent auditor. Second, the change of the magnitude of the discretionary accruals from the last year with former auditor and the first year with new auditor is significantly positive for the auditor change sample, compared with that of auditor no-change sample. The use of either modified Jones model or performance-matched model all yield qualitatively identical results. In summary, these results suggest that client firms change auditors to more lenient one who allow the aggressive earnings management from more conservative auditors. This finding is also consistent with our conjecture that auditor changes are precipitated by managers who wish to leave auditors who pressure them into making conservation accounting choices. These findings could be provide valuable policy implications to the regulators who introduced the mandatory auditor rotation policy recently. 본 연구는 감사인 교체여하에 따라 재량적 발생액에 주는 영향이 다른지를 분석하였다. 만일 차별적 감사수요가 존재하면 감사인 교체기업은 높은 품질의 감사인을 선호할 수 있다. 그러나 만일 전임 감사인의 지나친 보수성이 감사인 교체의 원인이라면 낮은 품질의 감사인을 선호할 수도 있다. 전자는 재량적 발생액이 억제될 것으로 예상되며, 후자는 재량적 발생액이 증가될 것으로 예상된다. 이러한 분석을 위하여 본 연구는 2000년부터 2005년까지 거래소에 상장되어 있는 12월 결산법인 중 금융업을 제외한 최종표본 2,762개 기업-연도 자료를 이용하였다. 이중 감사인 교체표본은 332개 기업-연 자료이고, 대응표본인 감사인 비교체기업은 2,430개 기업-연 자료이다. 이익조정 측정치는 재량적 발생액(Dechow et al. 1995)과 성과대응 재량적 발생액(Kothari et al. 2005)이 모두 분석에 이용되었다. 실증분석결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 비교체기업과 비교할 때 감사인 교체기업은 감사인 교체연도에 유의한 양(+)의 재량적 발생액 값을 가지고 있음이 관찰되었다. 둘째, 감사인 교체기업은 비교체기업보다 감사인 교체 직전연도와 비교하여 교체연도에 재량적 발생액의 변화분이 유의한 양(+)의 값이 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 재량적 발생액 및 성과대응 재량적 발생액의 측정치 모두 일관되게 나타났다. 이상의 발견은 재량적 발생액에 영향을 주는 일정변수를 통제한 후에도 감사인을 교체한 기업들은 감사인을 유지한 기업들보다 교체후 이익조정을 상향조정하거나 직전연도에 비하여 증가시키는 경향이 있음을 시사한다. 본 연구결과는 경험적 분석을 통해 감사인 교체기업들은 회계처리를 보다 공격적으로 수행하려는 경향이 있으며, 덜 보수적인 감사인을 고용함으로써 이를 실현한다는 결과를 보여주고 있다. 따라서 본 연구의 결과는 규제기관에게 2006년부터 도입된 감사인의 강제교체제도에 대한 정책적 시사점을 제공할 것으로 기대된다.

계속감사기간과 고객기업 투자효율성 사이의 비선형 관계

홍명예,최승욱 한국공인회계사회 2020 회계·세무와 감사 연구 Vol.62 No.4

This study investigates the association between auditor-client relationship and client firm investment efficiency. Traditional auditing research documents that high quality audit service provides credibility to accounting information and monitors management. Moreover, recent research flow argues that auditors not only conduct the auditing role of financial statement, but also can help clients’ various decisions as accounting experts. For instance, studies show that auditors help clients’ decisions on financial or investment activities. This would be done by communicating with client firms through long auditor-client relationships. Nevertheless, only a few have been examined the effect of auditor-client relationships on those activities. Most of prior studies have focused on the quality of accounting information when investigating the effects of the auditor tenure, and there are two contradictory views. On the one hand, results from previous studies show that longer tenure enhances accounting quality as auditors’ knowledge of client firm is an increasing function of tenure. On the other hand, papers argue that auditor independence is impaired by longer tenure thereby harms accounting quality. By focusing on the different perspectives of auditor tenure, this study tests the effect of tenure on investment efficiency. Using Korean listed firms, current study finds that the relationship between auditor tenure and client investment efficiency is non-linear. Specifically, current study documents that the investment inefficiency increases as tenure increases, however, it then decreases when the tenure is longer than 6.25 years. Thus, it shows (inverse) U-shape between tenure and investment efficiency (inefficiency). The specific years of tenure that maximize investment inefficiency are between 5.25 and 6.25 years, depending on the different proxies of investment efficiency and observations used in each test. Furthermore, the relationship is derived by over-investment sub-sample, non-Big4 sub-sample, and low accounting quality sub-sample. Lastly, the results excluding the mandatory auditor rotation period and the results using only the period after the introduction of K-IFRS are also qualitatively similar. Current study contributes to existing literature and practice in the following ways. First, since both concern on the impairment of auditor independence and the argument on accumulating auditor expertise on client and industry caused by longer auditor tenure exist in prior literature, it extends the effect of the continuous auditor tenure by showing its significant impact on client investment efficiency. Second, by discovering the U-shaped relationship between investment efficiency and the auditor tenure, the results of this paper document that the effect of tenure does not always appear linearly. Finally, domestic auditing regulations are increasingly trying to limit clients’ decision to voluntarily appoint external auditors. In Korea, the possibility of frequent replacement of auditors has increased with the introduction of a periodic auditor designation regulation. The results of this study imply that maintaining certain years of auditor tenure can help improving the investment efficiency of client firms. Followings are the caveats of our study. First, because the investment efficiency cannot be observed, we use estimated proxy in our analyses. Therein, our results may suffer from the bias embedded in the estimator. Second, even though we considered auditor characteristic using dichotomous variable that divides sample into big4 and non-big4 auditors, this does not guarantee that all individual audit firm characteristics are controlled in our model. Thus, we are cautious to extend our results to other client firm outcomes. 고품질의 회계감사는 회계정보에 신뢰성을 부여하고 경영자를 감시하는 역할을 한다. 비교적 최근의 회계감사 연구흐름은 재무제표 감사라는 감사인 본연의 역할 뿐 아니라 회계전문가로서 감사인이 기업의 의사결정에 다각적 도움을 줄 수 있다고 본다. 예를 들어, 선행연구는 회계감사가 기업의 영업활동 뿐 아니라 재무와 투자활동에도 직간접적 도움을 준다고 주장한다. 다만 아직까지 계속감사기간의 측면에서 이를 살펴본 연구는 많지 않다. 이에 본 연구는 선행연구를 확장하여 계속감사기간과 고객기업 투자효율성의 관계를 탐색한다. 실증분석 결과 계속감사기간이 길어짐에 따라 비효율적 투자는 점차 증가하다가 이후 다시 감소하였다. 즉, 계속감사기간과 비효율적 투자(투자효율성)는 역U자형(U자형) 관계가 관찰되었다. 구체적으로, 비효율적 투자는 분석방법에 따라 계속감사기간이 약 5.25∼6.25년일 때 최대값을 가지는 것으로 나타났다. 이는 계속감사기간이 길어짐에 따라 비효율적 투자 수준이 점차 증가하다가 약 6년 정도가 경과한 이후부터는 다시 비효율적 투자가 점차 감소하는 경향이 있음을 의미한다. 이러한 결과는 non-Big4 표본, 과잉투자 표본 및 저품질 회계정보 표본에서 유도되었다. 이는 계속감사기간과 고객기업 투자효율성의 관계는 고객기업과 감사인의 특성에 따라 상이할 수 있음을 시사한다. 마지막으로, 감사인 강제교체 기간을 제외한 결과와 국제회계기준 도입 이후 기간만을 이용한 결과 역시 전술한 결과와 질적으로 유사하였다. 본 연구는 학계와 실무에 다음과 같은 공헌을 한다. 첫째, 투자효율성과 계속감사기간 사이의 U자형 관계를 발견하여 계속감사기간의 효과가 항상 선형으로 나타나지는 않음을 실증하였다. 둘째, 국내외의 감사제도는 점차 감사인의 자율선임에 제약을 두려는 움직임이 있다. 국내에서도 과거 감사인 강제교체를 도입했던 바 있으며, 최근에는 주기적 감사인 지정제 등의 도입으로 감사인 교체가 빈번해질 가능성이 높아졌다. 본 연구의 결과는 일정기간 이상의 감사기간은 고객기업의 투자효율성을 제고하는데 도움을 줄 수 있음을 시사한다.

외부감사인의 규모와 감사품질 : 직급별 감사시간을 중심으로

강민지,배성호 (사)한국정부회계학회 2022 정부회계연구 Vol.20 No.2

This study examines the difference in audit quality between large, medium, and small auditors according to the size of auditors, and empirically analyzes how rank-specific audit hours for each position affects this difference. As it is suggested that the methodology for distinguishing auditors needs to be reviewed, the size of auditors is measured through the type of partnership with foreign accountants, the number of audited companies. This study examines the difference in audit quality between large, medium, and small auditors according to the size of auditors, and empirically analyzes how rank-specific audit hours for each position affects this difference. The size of auditors has been largely studied by dividing them into Big auditors and Non-Big4 auditors, but as it is suggested that the methodology for distinguishing auditors needs to be reviewed, the size of auditors is measured through the type of partnership with foreign accountants, the number of audited companies and auditor. As a result of regression analysis by selecting the sample period from 2016 to 2020, large auditors and medium-sized auditors had significantly higher audit quality in the measurement of the type of cooperate and the number of auditor. These results were found to be affected by the audit time of the director or junior in charge. In the case of large auditors and small auditors, the audit quality of large auditors is significantly higher when measured by the number of certified public accountants belonging to them. These results were partially affected by the audit time by position of the director in charge, senior, and junior. Finally, in the case of medium-sized auditors and small-sized auditors, all three measurements are not significantly higher in audit quality than small-sized auditors. However, as the audit hour of the senior belonging to the mid-sized auditor increased, the audit quality of the mid-sized auditor was significantly higher. In addition, previous studies were expanded in measuring Big4 and Non-Big4 as large auditors, medium-sized auditors, and small auditors without distinguishing them. In addition, by measuring Non-Big4, excluding Big4, in medium and small sizes, the audit quality by auditor size was more significantly different, suggesting that it is necessary to subdivide Non-Big4, which has recently increased in size.

감사인의 명성효과와 타 감사인에 대한 전이효과

하석태 ( Seok-tae Ha ),조성표 ( Seong-pyo Cho ) 한국회계학회 2018 회계학연구 Vol.43 No.3

This paper investigates the impact of audit failure on auditor reputation. Specifically, we examine clients’ stock market impact surrounding six dates on which audit procedure and independence were under severe scrutiny, prosecution or juridical decision. We also examine stock market impact of the clients of other auditors surrounding the event dates. We identify six events: enforcement actions, prosecution, fraud recognition, penalty suggestion, penalty decision and first trial. In addition, we compare the value relevance of operating incomes of audit failure auditor’s clients and that of other auditors’ clients. We find that the clients experienced a statistically negative market reaction on the dates of prosecution, fraud recognition and first trial, suggesting that investors downgraded the quality of the audits performed by auditor under severe scrutiny. We find that the clients of other auditors also experienced a statistically negative market reaction on the dates of fraud recognition and first trial, suggesting that audit failure of an auditor has spillover effects to other auditors’ audit quality. Additionally, we find that the value relevance of unexpected operating incomes of audit failure auditor’s clients is lower than that of other auditors’ clients. The evidence suggests that investors consider audit quality of Big 4 auditors to be homogeneous rather than discriminative. The results of this study have practical implications that it is important to establish an environment and infrastructure for external auditing as well as sanction individual auditors in order to improve the audit quality.

감사인의 세무서비스가 기업의 조세부담에 미치는 영향

이영한,허원,윤성만,최원석 한국회계정보학회 2010 회계정보연구 Vol.28 No.4

Recently IFAS has revised Auditor Ethics Code in order to regulate specific tax services that make significant effects on financial statements. So, KICPA and FSS are going to adopt this code. At this point, it is critical to evaluate effects of auditor-provided tax services. Purpose of this study is to investigate whether provision of tax services reduces manager/client' tax burden. Especially, manager purchasing tax services from current auditor has lower accumulated effective tax rate(Acc. ETR), respectively. And this paper tries to evaluate trend of Acc. ETR in retaining and dismissing phase of tax service contract. Hypotheses are as follows; First, Acc. ETR of client purchasing auditor provided tax services is lower because auditor reduce effectively client's tax by using knowledge spillover effect between audit and tax field. Second, Acc. ETR is also lower in retaining tax service contract. The Acc. ETR, however, is higher in the case of dismissing this contract. This study executes OLS regression analysis on 1,444firm-years from FY2004 to FY2008. And these samples are from Audit Report disclosed on the DART system. Results of this paper show that provisions of auditor tax services decrease client's tax burden and retaining this service contract also lower tax burden. But dismissing auditor as tax agent immediately does not make higher Acc. ETR. In dismissing phase, there is lagging effect for larger-sized firms because they retain sufficient human resources in dealing tax strategies as tax professional do. And case of dismissing auditor in order to make perception of auditor's independence to market participants is same effects. Consequently, our empirical findings imply that auditor use effectively knowledge spillover in running tax planning. The contribution of this paper is to suggest that in preparing to regulate auditor provided tax services, FSS and KICPA should not only consider auditor's independence perspective but also efficiency of knowledge spillover in order to adopt revised Auditor Ethics Code. 최근 국제회계사연맹(IFAC)에서는 감사서비스와 함께 재무제표에 중대한 영향을 주는 세무서비스를 제공하는 행위를 제한하는 감사인의 윤리규정을 개정하였으며, 이에 우리나라도 2011년부터 도입․시행예정이다. 본 연구는 감사인이 감사와 함께 세무서비스를 제공하는 경우에 피감사인의 조세부담을 절감시키는지를 실증분석하고자 한다. 이를 위해 감사인으로부터 세무서비스를 제공받는 기업이 그렇지 않은 기업에 비해 상대적으로 유효법인세율을 낮추는지를 분석하고, 감사인의 세무서비스계약이 계속 유지되는 경우와 본 계약을 해지하는 경우에 유효법인세율이 어떻게 변화하는지를 분석한다. 본 연구는 2004년부터 2008년까지의 1,444기업-연도 표본을 대상으로 분석한 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 감사인의 세무서비스를 구매한 기업들이 그렇지 않은 기업에 비해 조세부담이 낮다는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 이러한 결과는 감사인은 감사와 세무서비스분야 사이에 지식이전효과를 이용하여 효과적으로 피감사인의 조세부담을 줄인다는 것을 보여주는 것이라고 판단된다. 둘째, 감사인의 세무서비스를 계속하여 제공받는 경우에 조세부담이 더욱 감소하고 있음을 알 수 있었다. 결국 감사인인 세무대리인이 피감사인의 조세부담을 절감하는 성과를 보임으로써 계약관계가 지속되고 있음을 보여주는 결과라고 판단된다. 마지막으로 세무서비스 계약을 해지한 회계연도에는 예상과 일치하지 않은 결과를 보여주고 있으나, 규모가 큰 기업은 고도의 세무전문성이 있는 인적자원을 보유하고 있으며, 감사인의 외관상 독립성의 사유로 계약이 해지되는 경우에도 세무대리인이 교체되더라도 조세부담이 급격히 증가되지 않는다는 것을 추가분석을 통해 확인할 수 있었다. 본 연구의 결과는 감사인의 세무서비스 제공에 따른 감사인의 독립성측면과 납세자의 조세부담을 절감시킬 수 있다는 효율성측면 모두를 고려한 균형된 시각으로 정책을 판단해야 한다는 시사점을 제공하는데 그 의의를 두고 있다.

회계법인별 감사보수 수준과 감사품질

박선영,선우혜정 한국회계학회 2022 회계학연구 Vol.47 No.1

This study investigates the association between small and medium auditors’ (audit firms’) audit pricing policy and audit quality. Especially, this study examines whether auditors that charge high audit fees on average are likely to provide high- or low-quality audit service to their clients, compared with other auditors that do not charge high audit fees on average. If high audit fees enable the auditors to retain enough resources, such as recruiting and retaining high-quality personnel, it is likely that the auditors provide high-quality audit service. In contrast, if clients pay high audit fees in return for impaired auditor independence, the audit quality is expected to be lower. Empirical findings are summarized as follows. First, auditors with high pricing policy tends to provide low-quality audit services, compared with auditors with low pricing policy. Second, for auditors with high pricing policy, we find that the auditors provide equally low-quality services to clients that pay relatively low audit fees, compared with other clients that pay relatively high audit fees. Third, for auditors with low pricing policy, we find that the auditors provide equally high-quality services to clients that pay relatively high audit fees, compared with other clients that pay relatively low audit fees. In sum, these findings suggest that small and medium auditors maintain a similar level of audit quality at the auditor-level, regardless of the level of audit fees of individual audit clients. Considering that prior studies rarely look into audit quality at the auditor-level, these finding provide important implications into the determinants of audit quality. 본 연구에서는 중소형 회계법인(즉 non-Big4)들을 대상으로 회계법인별 감사보수 수준이 감사품질에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 감사보수의 결정요인을 고려할 때, 피감기업으로부터 평균적으로 높(낮)은 감사보수를 지급받는 고(저)가격정책을 가진 회계법인의 감사품질이 그렇지 않은 회계법인들과 다른지를 살펴본 것이다. 실증분석 결과는 다음과 같이 요약된다. 첫째, 전반적으로 고가격정책을 가진 회계법인이 감사한 피감기업의 재량적 발생액이 저가격정책을 가진 회계법인이 감사한 피감기업의 재량적 발생액보다 높았다. 즉 고가격정책을 가진 회계법인들이 감사한 피감기업들이 이익의 상향조정 수준을 늘리거나 하향조정 수준을 낮추는 현상이 발견되었는데, 고가격정책을 가진 회계법인이 이를 용인한다는 의미에서 감사품질이 낮다고 볼 수 있다. 둘째, 상대적으로 고(저)가격정책을 가진 회계법인은 특정 피감기업의 감사보수가 평균적인 수준보다 낮(높)은 경우에도 해당 피감기업의 이익조정 수준은 다른 피감기업들과 차이가 없었다. 이런 결과를 종합하면, 평균적으로 피감기업들로부터 매우 높은 보수를 받는 회계법인은 감사품질을 희생한 대가로 높은 보수를 받았을 가능성이 있으며, 이 회계법인은 감사보수가 낮은 다른 피감기업을 감사할 때도 유사한 낮은 품질의 감사 서비스를 제공하는 것으로 판단된다. 즉 감사품질이 회계법인별로 일정하게 유지되는 것이다. 기존 연구들이 주로 피감기업별 감사품질에 대해서 살펴보았다는 것을 고려하면, 본 연구의 발견은 회계실무계 및 규제기관 등에 여러 시사점을 준다.

주기적 감사인 지정 가능성이 재무제표의 보수성에 미치는 영향

김현정,유승원 한국공인회계사회 2022 회계·세무와 감사 연구 Vol.64 No.3

In this paper, we suggested the evidence that when the possibility of auditor’s client firms being subject to auditor periodic designation was high, current auditors increased the level of conservatism for their client’s financial report. According to the revision of ‘Act on External Audit of Stock Companies etc’ in 2018, the Securities and Futures Commission, a subsidiary of the Financial Supervisory Service, designates an external auditor for all listed companies and unlisted companies whose ownership and management are not separated. With the enforcement of the revised‘Act on External Audit of Stock Companies etc’, listed and unlisted firms that have been audited by freely contracted auditors for more than six years are audited by an external auditor designated by the financial authorities for the next three years. The initial complement of the‘External Auditor Designation Rule’ would increase the risk of disagreement between the current auditor and incoming designated auditor and of restatement of the financial statements, caused by this disagreement. The designated auditors who are directly assigned to the firms by the regulatory authorities may conduct strict audits based on high independence, which may increase the audit risk of existing auditors before the designation. The strict audit by the designated auditors will lead to an increase in the audit risk of the existing auditors due to the possibility of disagreement between the existing auditors and the designated auditors, the risk of financial report restatement, and the risk of litigation. The current auditors who expect their client firm to be designated within a few years will consider the implementation of ‘External Auditor Designation Rule’ as an audit risk and this increased audit risk will affect the quality of the current financial report. Because current auditors have incentives to alleviate the future risk caused by audit failure, they would require firms to report more conservatively, right before a year of complementing the ‘External Auditor Designation Rule’. Using a sample of firms listed on the KOSPI and KOSDAQ security market from 2016 to 2019, we found evidence that is consistent with this argument. The firms expected to be designated in 2020 reported more conservative financial statements in 2018 and 2019 than before. In particular, among the firms expected to be designated within few years, those having been audited by auditors with which firms had freely contracted for under 6 years reported even more conservatively than those audited by auditors freely contracted for over 6 years. This result means that the preliminary effect of the auditor designation rule is remarkable when the free contract period is relatively short, and the independence of the existing auditors is maintained high. These results indicate that the current auditors perceive their client firms being designated as an audit risk and increase the level of conservatism in financial reports of client firms to alleviate the audit risk. This study is meaningful in that it verified the pre-emptive effect of the periodic designation rule by presenting empirical evidence that the level of conservatism of financial reporting can be improved by the possibility of auditor designation. 본 연구는 주기적 감사인 지정 가능성이 존재할 때 기존 감사인의 보수성이 증가한다는 실증증거를제시한다. 주기적 감사인 지정의 시행으로 새로운 지정 감사인과 기존 감사인 간의 감사의견 불일치리스크는 높아질 것이다. 금융당국으로부터 직접 피감사기업을 배정받는 지정 감사인은 높은 독립성을바탕으로 엄격한 감사를 수행할 것이며, 이는 지정 직전 기존 감사인의 감사위험을 높일 수 있다. 즉, 지정 감사인의 엄격한 감사로 증가하는 기존 감사인과 지정 감사인 간 의견불일치 가능성과 그로 인한 재무제표 재작성 위험, 소송위험 등은 기존 감사인의 감사위험 증가로 이어질 것이다. 주기적 감사인 지정 시행에 앞서 증가한 미래 의견불일치 또는 감사실패로 인한 소송 및 제재 위험을 경감시키고자, 기존 감사인은 보다 보수적인 재무보고를 요구할 가능성이 있다. 실증분석 결과, 2020년 회계연도부터 감사인을 지정 받을 것으로 예상되는 기업의 2018년과 2019년 재무제표는 그 이전에 비해더 보수적인 것으로 확인되었다. 특히 지정 예상 기업 중 동일 감사인과의 자유수임 기간이 6년을 초과하지 않는 기업들은 자유수임 기간이 6년을 초과하는 기업에 비해 회계처리의 보수성이 더욱 강하게 나타났다. 이는 자유수임 기간이 상대적으로 짧고, 기존 감사인의 독립성이 높을 때 주기적 감사인지정제도의 사전적 효과가 두드러지는 것으로 판단된다. 본 연구의 분석결과는 기존 감사인이 주기적감사인 지정의 가능성을 감사위험으로 인식하여 사전적으로 감사위험을 낮추고자 하며, 이러한 감사인의 의도는 재무보고의 보수주의 수준에 반영되는 것을 나타낸다.