ABSTRACT

Changes to the auditors’ reports aim to reduce the information gap and make auditing more transparent. Despite the existence of standards and guidelines research on materiality in practice is limited, this article examines auditors’ application of materiality as disclosed in their reports following the introduction of the revised standard on auditors’ reports in the UK. We provide evidence on actual benchmarks used and materiality rationales. Additionally, we also examine audit firm and industry variations in materiality practices as well as materiality reporting to audit committees. We find materiality disclosures are generally compliant with regulation and consistent with a desire to reduce the information gap auditors make additional disclosures. However, there is variation in the nature and extent of disclosures, possibly due to potential concerns about making the subjectivity of auditing too apparent, which can limit the reports’ usefulness. Overall, the revised standard has enhanced transparency, but there is room for improvement in providing more meaningful disclosures in the auditors’ reports.

摘要

对审计师报告的修改旨在缩小信息差距并使审计更加透明。尽管存在标准和指南，但在实践中对重要性的研究是有限的，本文考察了在英国引入修订后的审计报告标准后，审计师在其报告中披露的重要性的应用。我们提供有关实际使用的基准和重要性理由的证据。此外，我们还检查审计公司和行业在重要性实践方面的差异以及向审计委员会提交的重要性报告。我们发现实质性披露通常符合法规要求，并且符合审计师进行额外披露以减少信息差距的愿望。但是，披露的性质和程度有所不同，可能是由于担心审计的主观性过于明显，这可能会限制报告的实用性。总体而言，修订后的准则提高了透明度，但在审计报告中提供更有意义的披露方面仍有改进空间。