事务所转制、法律风险与审计质量

Transformation of Accounting Firms,Legal Risk and Audit Quality

文章以我国财政部、工商总局联合推动的会计师事务所向"特殊普通合伙组织形式"转制这一特色事件为契机,基于审计师法律责任的视角,选取2008-2013年我国A股上市公司及其主审会计师事务所为样本,动态实证分析事务所转制对审计质量的影响。研究结果表明:具备证券资格的事务所全部完成特殊普通合伙转制之后,审计质量的整体水平显著提升;而且有限责任制转换为特殊普通合伙制增加了审计师的法律责任,同时也提高了其法律风险意识。具体表现为:转制之后,审计师对高法律风险客户的盈余管理容忍度下降,也更倾向于对高风险客户出具非标审计意见。由此可见,我国会计师事务所特殊普通合伙转制方案取得了显著成效,这将有利于我国注册会计师行业的持续发展和做强做大。

Based on current event of accounting firms＇ transformation to ＂special and ordinary partnership organizing form＂ in China motivated by Ministry of Finance and Administration of Industry and Commerce, the paper selects A stock listed enterprises from 2008 to 2013 and their major accounting firms as samples and conducts dynamic analysis of the effect of transformation of ac- counting firms on audit quality from the perspective of legal obligation of the auditors. The empirical results show that the overall au- dit quality of the accounting firms with eligible securities is significantly improved after the complete transformation to special and or- dinary partnership organizing form; the transformation from limited liability system to special and ordinary partnership organizing form enhances the legal liability of the auditors and improves their risk awareness at the same time. The specific implications are fol- lowed ： after the transformation, the tolerance to the management of discretionary accruals of the auditors for high-risk clients decrea- ses and the auditor tend to give non-standard auditing suggestions to high-risk clients. Therefore, the system transformation of ac- counting firms to special and ordinary partnership organizing form in China has achieved remarkable results and it will be conducive to the sustainable development of China＇s CPA industry to be stronger and better.