失去客戶的威脅、客戶重要性與會計師事務所規模對審計人員獨立性之影響

The Influence of the Threat of Losing Clients, Client Importance, and Accounting Firm Size on Auditor Independence

本研究以實驗研究方式，探討審計人員是否會受到客戶壓力的影響，而傾向同意客戶的積極式報告，以及審計人員是否會利用國際財務報導準則的模糊性為其報告決策辯護，問卷內容是關於除役負債準備之個案，參與者是200位會計師事務所的審計人員。研究結果發現當客戶更換會計師風險高時，四大事務所的審計人員傾向同意積極式報告；但不論客戶更換會計師風險是高或低，非四大事務所的審計人員都傾向同意積極式報告；客戶重要性的影響則不顯著。其次，審計人員會利用準則的模糊性為其報告決策辯護。

The study investigates whether auditors are inclined to allow the client to adopt aggressive reporting when a thigh risk of losing the client. The study was based on a case concerning the recognition of provisions. Two hundred practicing auditors in our experiment determined the amount of decommissioning obligation of the client’s power plant. The results indicate that auditors in the Big Four CPA firms are inclined to accept lower decommissioning obligations when the risk of losing the client is high, whereas auditors in non-Big Four accounting firms are inclined to accept lower decommissioning obligations regardless of the risk of losing the client. Nonetheless, the client importance (the revenue contribution of the client to the audit firm) does not influence auditors’ decision. Our results also show that auditors will tend to justify their decisions by citing the vagueness inherent in IFRS (i.e. whether a reliable estimate of amount of obligation can be made) .