Income Smoothing and Audit Fees

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of income smoothing on the amount of fees paid for auditing services in companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. In this study, the criteria of net income volatilities and accruals were used as indicators of income smoothing in companies. For this purpose, the financial information of 118 companies in the years 2011 to 2020 were extracted and reviewed by systematic elimination method as a statistical sample of the research. Multiple linear regression method was used to test the hypotheses. Findings showed that income smoothing based on both criteria of net income volatilities and accruals had a significant effect on audit fees in companies. In other words, profit with less volatilities (higher quality of income) and accruals with less volatilities in companies (higher quality of accruals) led to a reduction in the amount of fees received by auditors.