IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bbe/wpaper/1404.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Incumbent audit firm-provided tax services and clients with low financial reporting quality

Author

Listed:
  • Emma-Riikka Myllymäki

    (Accounting and Finance University of Vaasa)

Abstract

This study investigates whether incumbent audit firm-provided tax services enhance or impair the likelihood of acknowledging client companies’ low financial reporting quality. In particular, we examine the association between tax-related fees and the likelihood of timely restatements, and internal control weakness disclosures among a sample of US companies that all have misstatements in financial information. The empirical findings indicate that companies paying higher tax-related fees are less likely to disclose SOX 404 internal control weakness disclosures, implying that underlying control problems are unacknowledged when incumbent audit firmprovided tax-related fees are higher. However, the findings suggest that just providing both audit and tax-related services does not have an impact on audit quality per se, but rather it is the magnitude of the tax-related fees in particular that counts. We also find some evidence suggesting that companies paying higher tax-related fees have higher likelihood of restatement lags, whereas companies paying smaller tax-related fees to their audit firm restate financial statements in a timelier manner. Overall, the findings suggest that audit scrutiny of client companies with low quality financial reporting is weaker when the magnitude of tax-related fees is higher.

Suggested Citation

  • Emma-Riikka Myllymäki, 2014. "Incumbent audit firm-provided tax services and clients with low financial reporting quality," Working Papers 1404, Departament Empresa, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, revised Sep 2014.
    • Handle: RePEc:bbe:wpaper:1404
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.uab.cat/doc/DOC_WP_14_04
    File Function: Revised version, 2014
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jeffrey S. Paterson & Adrian Valencia, 2011. "The Effects of Recurring and Nonrecurring Tax, Audit†Related, and Other Nonaudit Services on Auditor Independence," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(5), pages 1510-1536, December.
    2. Mark L. DeFond & K. Raghunandan & K.R. Subramanyam, 2002. "Do Non–Audit Service Fees Impair Auditor Independence? Evidence from Going Concern Audit Opinions," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 1247-1274, September.
    3. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    4. Michael J. Ferguson & Gim S. Seow & Danqing Young, 2004. "Nonaudit Services and Earnings Management: UK Evidence," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(4), pages 813-841, December.
    5. Sarah C. Rice & David P. Weber, 2012. "How Effective Is Internal Control Reporting under SOX 404? Determinants of the (Non‐)Disclosure of Existing Material Weaknesses," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 811-843, June.
    6. DeAngelo, Linda Elizabeth, 1981. "Auditor size and audit quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 183-199, December.
    7. William R. Kinney & Zoe‐Vonna Palmrose & Susan Scholz, 2004. "Auditor Independence, Non‐Audit Services, and Restatements: Was the U.S. Government Right?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(3), pages 561-588, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Chan & Raman, K.K. & Sun, Lili & Wu, Da, 2017. "The effect of ambiguity in an auditing standard on auditor independence: Evidence from nonaudit fees and SOX 404 opinions," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 37-51.
    2. Knechel, W. Robert & Thomas, Edward & Driskill, Matthew, 2020. "Understanding financial auditing from a service perspective," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. Beardsley, Erik L. & Imdieke, Andrew J. & Omer, Thomas C., 2021. "The distraction effect of non-audit services on audit quality," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(2).
    4. Legoria, Joseph & Rosa, Gina & Soileau, Jared S., 2017. "Audit quality across non-audit service fee benchmarks: Evidence from material weakness opinions," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 97-108.
    5. Joseph V. Carcello & Terry L. Neal & Lauren C. Reid & Jonathan E. Shipman, 2020. "Auditor Independence and Fair Value Accounting: An Examination of Nonaudit Fees and Goodwill Impairments," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 189-217, March.
    6. DeFond, Mark & Zhang, Jieying, 2014. "A review of archival auditing research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 275-326.
    7. Timothy B. Bell & Monika Causholli & W. Robert Knechel, 2015. "Audit Firm Tenure, Non‐Audit Services, and Internal Assessments of Audit Quality," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 461-509, June.
    8. Anastasia Kraft & Kerstin Lopatta, 2016. "Auditor fees, discretionary book-tax differences, and tax avoidance," International Journal of Economics and Accounting, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 7(2), pages 127-155.
    9. Donelson, Dain C. & Ege, Matthew & Imdieke, Andrew J. & Maksymov, Eldar, 2020. "The revival of large consulting practices at the Big 4 and audit quality," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    10. Notbohm, Matthew & Valencia, Adrian, 2021. "Audit quality effects of the PCAOB's 2006 tax service restrictions," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 55(C).
    11. Daniela Hohenfels & Reiner Quick, 2020. "Non-audit services and audit quality: evidence from Germany," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(5), pages 959-1007, October.
    12. Alhababsah, Salem & Alhaj-Ismail, Alaa, 2023. "Does shared tenure between audit committee chair and engagement partner affect audit outcomes? Evidence from the UK," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(2).
    13. Domenico Campa & Ray Donnelly, 2016. "Non-audit services provided to audit clients, independence of mind and independence in appearance: latest evidence from large UK listed companies," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(4), pages 422-449, June.
    14. Bugeja, Martin, 2011. "Takeover premiums and the perception of auditor independence and reputation," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 278-293.
    15. Garcia-Blandon, Josep & Argiles-Bosch, Josep Maria & Castillo-Merino, David & Martinez-Blasco, Monica, 2017. "An Assessment of the Provisions of Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 on Non-audit Services and Audit Firm Tenure: Evidence from Spain," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 251-261.
    16. Shivaram Rajgopal & Suraj Srinivasan & Xin Zheng, 2021. "Measuring audit quality," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 559-619, June.
    17. Tobias Svanstr�m, 2013. "Non-audit Services and Audit Quality: Evidence from Private Firms," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(2), pages 337-366, June.
    18. Dennis Chambers & Jeff Payne, 2011. "Audit quality and accrual persistence: evidence from the pre- and post-Sarbanes-Oxley periods," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 26(5), pages 437-456, May.
    19. Jian Cao & Feng Chen & Julia L. Higgs, 2016. "Late for a very important date: financial reporting and audit implications of late 10-K filings," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 633-671, June.
    20. Eli Amir & Yanling Guan & Gilad Livne, 2010. "Auditor Independence and the Cost of Capital Before and After Sarbanes-Oxley: The Case of Newly Issued Public Debt," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 633-664.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bbe:wpaper:1404. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Departament Empresa (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://158.109.224.4/webeco/plaes/RePEc/bbe/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.