Same Auditor Auditing Both Sides of Related Party Transactions and Perceptions of Earnings Quality

儘管關係人交易的存在係屬營業常態，但因近年來國內外陸續爆發的財報舞弊多與關係人交易相關，顯示出關係人交易常被視為輸送利益的工具，且根據文獻，關係人交易將造成公司財務報表的資訊不確定性增加，進而傷害盈餘品質認知。本研究預期公司與關係人由相同會計師查核能降低關係人交易對盈餘品質認知產生的不良影響，因相同會計師能掌握關係人交易雙方之資訊，作出更資訊性的判斷以及更精確的風險評估，有利於會計師蒐集證據以辨認關係人與評估揭露方式，減少公司調增盈餘之管理行為，進而能抑制關係人交易對投資大眾盈餘品質認知的負面影響。 實證結果指出，若關係人交易之雙方由相同會計師查核，能抑制關係人交易對投資大眾盈餘品質認知之負向影響，且若受查公司之關係人依存度較高時，該抑制效果更明顯。此外，若受查公司由非產業專家會計師查核時，選任相同會計師之抑制效果較具備產業專家之相同會計師查核者更強。綜合上述結果，當關係人交易金額越多由相同會計師查核時，投資大眾會認為該公司之盈餘更具有資訊性。關係人交易雙方由相同會計師查核之效果可提供公司治理單位作為委任會計師之參考，並可作為關係人交易雙方由不同會計師查核時，因較缺乏資訊溝通而可能導致揭露品質較差之證據。Even though related party transactions (RPTs) serve as normal business operation and resource allocation means among affiliated firms in Taiwan, RPTs were associated with a number of financial scandals and provided channels for inappropriate tunneling activities. Prior research finds that RPTs increase the uncertainty of financial information reported and impair perceptions of earnings quality. In this study, we explore whether same auditors auditing both sides of RPTs can mitigate the declined perceptions of earnings quality caused by RPTs. We expect that information advantage due to auditing both sides of RPTs may help auditors (1) make more informed judgments and more accurate risk assessments regarding RPTs and (2) make disclosures of RPTs more transparent, thus producing a higher-quality audit and mitigating RPTs negative effects on investors’ perceptions of earnings quality. Our empirical results show that the adverse effects of RPTs on perceptions of earnings quality are alleviated if both sides of RPTs are audited by the same auditor. We further find that such effects are stronger for companies of higher dependence on RPTs or audited by non-specialists. In other words, investors perceive companies’ earnings to be more informative when higher amounts of RPTs are audited by the same auditors. Our results provide insights to companies’ audit committee members when they consider engagement auditors of related parties. In addition, the findings of this study might provide evidence of possible lacking of communication between different auditors of both sides of RPTs