세율유연화가 감사보수 및 감사시간에 미치는 영향 (The Effect of Smoothing of GAAP ETRs on Audit Fees and Audit Hours)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국세무학회
· 수록지 정보 : 세무와회계저널 / 22권 / 3호 / 89 ~ 131페이지
· 저자명 : 박종일, 신상이

초록

본 연구는 GAAP 유효세율의 유연화(이하 세율유연화) 정보를 외부감사인이 감사위험에 반영하는지를 감사보수 또는 감사시간 측면에서 알아보는데 있다. Demere et al.(2019)은 과거 3년간 GAAP ETR의 변동성에서 Cash ETR의 변동성의 차이를 이용한 세율유연화 측정치를 처음 제안한 후, 세율유연화가 높은 기업은 재무제표의 재작성이 낮음을 보고하였다. 이 연구에서는 외부정보이용자에게 세율유연화가 미래 Cash ETR을 예측하는데 경영자의 사적정보를 전달하고, 또한 높은 재무보고의 질에 관한 신뢰할만한 지표를 제공한다고 주장한다. 따라서 본 연구는 앞서의 연장선상에서 세율유연화에 대한 감사인의 반응을 살펴보고자 한다. 이를 위해 본 연구는 2004년부터 2018년까지의 분석기간에 금융업이 아닌 12월이 결산인 유가증권과 코스닥기업을 대상으로 감사보수(감사시간) 자료가 이용가능 했던 11,961(11,574)개 기업－연도를 분석하였다.
실증결과는 첫째, 종속변수에 영향을 미치는 변수들이 통제된 후에도 세율유연화가 높은 피감기업일수록 감사인의 감사보수가 낮고, 감사투입시간이 적은 것으로 나타났다. 이 결과는 Demere et al.(2019)의 주장과 일치한다. 둘째, 세율유연화를 그 원천(본질적 vs. 재량적 요인)에 따라 구분하여 살펴본 결과, 본질적 세율유연화가 높을 때는 주로 감사보수가 낮은 반면에, 재량적 세율유연화가 높을 때는 주로 감사투입시간이 낮았다. 셋째, 표본을 나누어 분석한 결과에서 앞서의 관계들은 재무보고의 질(예로, 발생액의 질)이 높을 때, Big 4 감사인이 감사하거나, 정보비대칭 수준이 낮을 때 더 뚜렷한 결과로 나타났다.
이상을 요약하면, 본 연구는 세율유연화가 감사인의 감사위험을 낮추는 효과가 있음을 처음으로 보여주었다는 데 의의가 있다. 아울러 본 연구결과에서는 세율유연화 정보가 감사인 관점에서 높은 재무보고의 질로 평가됨을 보여주고 있어 감사보수와 감사시간의 모형에 중요한 결정변수임을 시사한다.

영어초록

In this paper, we investigate whether auditors take into account smoothing of GAAP ETRs, a proxy for the audit risk associated with financial reporting quality. Recent study indicates smoothing of GAAP ETRs is associated with higher financial reporting quality (Demere et al. 2019). For example, Demere et al. (2019) document that GAAP ETR smoothing through tax accruals is strongly associated with a lower likelihood of financial restatement and tax－related financial reporting fraud. Therefore, managers are likely to use tax accruals to smooth out volatilities in GAAP ETRs to communicate a long－term sustainable tax rate (Demere et al. 2019). So from that point, we extends the prior literature by examining whether smoothing of GAAP ETRs’ information is associated with auditors’ assessment of their clients’ quality of financial information.
An unexplored question, however, is whether GAAP ETR smoothing are association with higher or lower financial reporting quality influences auditors’ risk assessment of their clients. For analysis, following Demere et al. (2019), we measure GAAP ETR smoothing (hereafter GSMO), we also separate GAAP ETR smoothing measure into innate and discretionary factors. We use both audit fees and hours as a proxy for audit risk by auditor. Our sample covers KOSPI and KOSDAQ listed firms in non－financial industries with fiscal year－end in December from 2004 to 2018 period. Our main sample consists of 11,961 (11,574) firm year observations in audit fees (audit hours) data.
We document several findings. First, after controlling for several factors as well as pre－tax earnings smoothing, tax avoidance, and opaque financial reports that affect audit fees and hours, we find evidence consistent with Demere et al. (2019)’s argument that there is a negative and significant association between GSMO and audit fees or audit hours. This suggests auditors assess their clients’ higher GAAP ETR smoothing as having lower audit risk. Therefore, our results suggest that GAAP ETR smoothing through tax accruals indicates higher financial reporting quality. Second, we also distinguish between GSMO driven by innate GSMO (i.e., economicfundamentals) and discretionary GSMO (i.e., management choices), we find that firms with a higher degree of innate GSMO affect auditors’ pricing decisions and decreasing their audit fees, whereas we also find that firms with a higher degree of discretionary GSMO affect auditors’ efforts and decreasing their audit hours. These results imply that auditors’ professional response varies with the source of GAAP ETR smoothing. Finally, we find that, within firm, a higher degree of GAAP ETR smoothing is associated with lower audit risk and such negative associations are more pronounced for firms is audited by a Big 4 auditor, lower information asymmetry (proxied by lower volatility of daily stock returns), and higher financial reporting quality (proxied by accruals quality, following Francis et al. (2005)).
In sum, these results suggest that firms with higher GAAP ETR smoothing represent lower audit risk, which results in lower levels of audit fees and hours (i.e., effort) for the audit engagement. Thus, our results imply GAAP ETR smoothing reduces audit risk by enhancing clients’ quality of financial information. We contribute to the tax－related literature by showing that auditors reflect GAAP ETR smoothing strategy is related to higher financial reporting quality in their pricing decisions and auditing effort.
In addition, our study contributes to the auditing and tax literatures by being the first to show that auditors’ pricing decisions and their auditing efforts are shaped by the information content of firms’ GAAP ETR smoothing policies and the information conveyance is attributable to reduced earnings manipulation risk surrounding the quality of the firm’s reported earnings. Therefore, we suggest that firms with higher smoothing of GAAP ETRs are likely the ones who commit to a more transparent earnings reporting strategy overall. Such a GAAP ETR smoothing strategy is a credible indicator for overall financial reporting quality. Furthermore, our results suggest that firms’ GAAP ETR smoothing status provides a relatively simple and observable cue to auditors as well as external information users (i.e., investors, creditors, regulators, tax authorities and policymakers etc.) when assessing a firm’s financial reporting quality.

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