會計師出具分攤責任式查核報告對審計公費之影響

The Effect of Making Reference to the Audit of Other Auditors on Audit Pricing

我國審計準則公報允許集團財務報表主辦會計師可以在其查核報告中提及其他會計師的查核工作，而不承擔組成個體查核人員之責任。雖然倚賴其他會計師查核工作可以減少對組成個體的直接查核投入，但主辦會計師仍須投入確保整體審計品質的查核努力與溝通成本，並考慮爭取合併報告內所有組成個體之查核工作，因此本文推論出具分攤責任式查核報告之審計公費較高。本文以2013年至2017年間我國有揭露審計公費金額資訊、有公告合併財務報告之非金融業上市櫃公司為研究對象之實證結果發現，出具分攤責任式查核報告的會計師收取較高審計公費，且會計師倚賴組成個體查核人員之查核範圍愈大，審計公費愈高。再者，雖然54號審計準則公報增加主辦會計師出具分攤式查核報告的要求與限制，致使會計師出具分攤責任式查核報告之比例下降，但其與審計公費之正向關係未有顯著變化。

In the audit of group financial statements, Taiwan GAAS allows group engagement partners to share their audit responsibility by making reference to component auditors in the auditor's report on the group financial statements. Although relying on other auditors' work might reduce the direct audit effort to the component financial statements, principle auditors still must undertake the supervisory and communicated effort to ensure the overall audit quality, the overall audit efforts might not be lower. In addition, group engagement partners might charge higher audit fees in order to attract the component audit clients. It is therefore, this study suggests the principal auditors will charge higher audit fees when they issue the audit report with referring other auditors. Using a sample of Taiwan non-financial listed companies with disclosing audit fees information, and filing consolidated financial statements over the period 2013 to 2017, this study documents the following findings. For those audit report making reference to the audit of other auditors, the group engagement partners charge a higher audit fees. Further, although the Statements of Auditing Standards 54 prescribes additional requirements applicable when auditing the group financial statements, there is no significant impact on the relationship between audit fees and the group audit.