| 英文摘要 |
This research aims to clarify the legal status of accountant’s liability insurance in Taiwan and provide legislative suggestions—from the prospective of comparative law. With the characteristics of gatekeeper, accountant is critical to the capital market and corporate governance, and thus that will be more important about how to balance the accountant’s liability and protection of investors. This paper first compares Taiwan with other jurisdictions, finding that there is no sufficient empirical evidence to support a complete mandatory insurance system in Taiwan. It is also improper for current Taiwan law to only requir the incorporated CPA firm for mandatory insurance. It is then proposed in this paper that the arguments about mandatory insurance and the preferred mandatory disclosure of attorney’s liability insurance in the U.S. may be also considered for accountant’s liability insurance for Taiwan. Since two models both have their pros and cons, this paper proposes the mixed model—mandatory disclosure—as the default rule, and mandatory insurance as the exception. The criteria should be able to reflect the liability risk, such as the type of business accountant engages, and not limited to the issue a firm is incorporated or not. This framework is also helpful for the monitoring and signaling function of accountant’s liability insurance. Finally, according to the framework proposed by this research, more detailed analyses and legislative recommendations are provided for research and practice in the future. |
