The effect of tax aggressiveness and board of director composition on audit fees

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of tax aggressiveness, and the board composition (board independence, CEO duality) on audit fees of listed firms on the Stock Exchange of Tehran. Accordingly, the information required to investigate the 68 companies listed during the years 2013-2003 were extracted and studied. In order to test the hypothesis, multivariate linear regression model is used. Overall, the results indicate that there is no significant relationship between the board of director composition and audit fees so that the board independence does not have a significant relationship with audit fees. Also, there is no relationship between CEO duality and audit fees. However, the there is no significant relationship between board independence and audit fees for firms with less effective tax rate than firms with more effective tax rate . And finally the there is no significant relationship between CEO duality and audit fees for firms with less effective tax rate than firms with more effective tax rate .also, Control variables such as financial leverage, return on assets, audit firms, institutional ownership have no impact on audit fees. But, firm’s size has effect on Audit fees and it can be argued that audit fees increase by economic unit size.