审计师选择与企业租赁合约安排

Auditor Choice and the Arrangement of Lease Contract

大规模事务所通常具有较高的审计质量,但在我国审计行业诉讼风险普遍较低的现状下,大规模事务所也可能凭借自身较强的专业胜任能力帮助客户构造复杂的报表管理方案。本文以租赁会计为例对此进行了实证检验,并发现在旧准则的两租分离模式下,构造经营租赁合同的行为在聘请大规模会计师事务所的企业更为明显。进一步研究显示,当企业所聘请的审计师由小型事务所变更为大型事务所之后,企业经营租赁业务的比重显著提高;同时,在大型事务所的审计客户中,经营租赁越多的企业更换事务所的可能性越低。这些结果表明,我国大型事务所出于争取客户、提升市场份额的目的帮助客户构造了经营租赁合同以实现表外融资。本文的结论为我国大型事务所的独立性和审计质量提供了经验证据,对于审计行业的监管具有参考价值,也有助于预测新租赁会计准则的实施效果。

Large auditors usually deliver high audit quality. However, based on the low litigation risk in Chinese auditing industry, large auditors with high professional competence may also have abilities and incentives to help clients manage financial statements. This paper uses lease accounting as the setting to address this question. It is found that Chinese enterprises do have a tendency to structure operating lease arrangements under the prior lease accounting standards, and this tendency is more significant in enterprises audited by large accounting firms. Furthermore, it is found that the clients of large accounting firms are less likely to switch auditor if they have successfully structured more operating leases, and that the clients' operating leases increase after they switch from small auditors to large auditors. These results indicate that large accounting firms in China tend to help clients to structure operating leases so that they can expand the market share. This paper provides empirical evidence on the independence and audit quality of large accounting firms in China, and also serves as a reference for the supervision of auditing industry and the influence of accounting standards on leasing.