فصلنامه دانش حسابداری
پیاپی 43 (زمستان 1399)

The complicated and evolving features of the business environment, the extensive use of information technology, the continuous change of laws and regulations, and the use of fair values and assets' revaluation in the capital accumulation necessitate the use of expert auditing services. Also, the strong emphasis on the quality of auditing by the professionals and legislators shows that the current audit environment faces many challenges and auditors' response to them is to increase the participation of experts in auditing activities. Considering the adoption of international accounting standards in Iran and the emphasis of these standards on fair value, expert services, and revision of auditing standard 620 (using the services of auditors), this study aims to explore auditors’ attitude about the necessity of using expert services in auditing and examine the current status of the auditing profession using expert services.  

Data collection method was survey method, and nonparametric statistical tests of Wilcoxon, Chi-squared, and Friedman were used to analyze the data.  

According to the survey results, auditors emphasize the need to use specialized services in the current situation, but most auditing firms do not have any guidelines or instructions for specialized services in auditing other than auditing standards. Also, the valuation experts are the most widely used experts in auditing. Additionally, legal and tax experts are other important specialties that could be used after valuation. Among the eleven groups of experts in authorized legal expertise, the real estate appraisal group has the highest priority, followed by the finance, road, construction, and surveying groups. In the current situation, auditors are more likely to hire professionals who are paid by the client. But these auditors themselves do not play a decisive role in selecting experts. Also, from the auditors' point of view, the cost is one of the main factors influencing the absorption of specialized personnel. Also, the results showed that auditors mostly use experts who are outside the audit team and hired by the management. However, auditors' attitudes toward tax and IT experts are more convinced than those of other groups of experts.  

At present, valuation experts are most widely required in auditing than other specialties. Also, costs play the principal role in using specialized services in auditing. Accordingly, the auditors' team tends to employ specialists whose fees are paid by the management. But, the auditors' team is not significantly involved in designating management specialists. Therefore, the Association of Certified Public Accountants is advised to consider the cost of using expert services separately in the regulations for determining the fee of auditing services and to include the cost of expertise in calculating the fee for auditing services.

Fraudulent financial reporting is a major concern of the audit profession. In this regard, auditors are responsible according to auditing standards. Given the importance of identification and assessment of the risk of fraud in an audit of financial statements and the importance of responses of auditors, the purpose of this study is to provide a model for identification and assessment of the risks of material misstatement due to fraud in an audit of financial statements.  

In order to achieve this goal, firstly, researches in this field were studied to identify the effective indicators on assessment of the risk of fraud and other effective indicators were extracted by interviewing experts. Experts' opinion on the extracted indicators was collected through a questionnaire and were agreed upon through using Fuzzy Delphi method and expert opinion poll. Subsequently, confirmatory factor analysis test was used to determine the factor load of each indicator of each component. The relationship between the influence of different indicators on assessment of the risk of fraud in the form of Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was tested and the research model was presented.  

The results of the study showed that 146 out of 162 indicators extracted from theoretical foundations and researches and interviews, in the form of 5 components, reached the Delphi group general consensus and the results of performing a confirmatory factor analysis showed 144 indicators were of sufficient importance.  

The components that influence the assessment of the risk of fraud in an audit of financial statements, importance respectively, are: the characteristics of the client, the characteristics of the audit firm, the characteristics of performing the audit, the environmental characteristics and the personal characteristics of the auditor. Of the 53 indicators approved in the component of client characteristics, five important indicators are: lack of sufficient managers experience; lack of fair dealing with staff; lack of appropriate work environment for employees; lack of job security; ignoring the need to monitor or reduce the risks associated with assets misappropriation. Of the 23 indicators approved in the component of audit firm characteristics, five important indicators are: having sufficient auditing tools; auditor access to databases; giving auditors reasonable rights and benefits; adequate investment in auditing; and fair dealing with Auditors. Of the 27 indicators approved in the component of the characteristics of performing the audit, five important indicators are: adjusting the audit plan and auditing tests in responses to fraud risk factors; adequate understanding of the client and its environment, including internal controls; appropriate allocation and oversight of the audit team; the discussion among audit team members; and auditor access to databases. Of the 19 indicators approved in the component of environmental characteristics, five important indicators are: lack of culture of accountability and answering; sophisticated rules and regulations; numerous laws and regulations; lack of independent oversight bodies; and inexpressive laws and regulations. Of the 22 indicators approved in the component of personal characteristics of the auditor, five important indicators are: Ability to properly understand evidence and identify evidence inconsistent with other evidence; knowledge and awareness of fraud; responsibility; confidence; ability to identification of intentional identified misstatements.

This article seeks to extend the concept of tax elasticity to corporate tax sensitivity. This issue is interpreted as corporate tax stickiness (changes in the corporate income tax to changes in the net income). In other words, in the sense of tax stickiness, the corporate income is analyzed instead of GDP, and the corporate income tax instead of government tax revenues. Theoretically, it is unlikely that the company's tax will always increase. In other words, when the company's income decreases, so does the tax. But given the stickiness of the tax, the pace of change between the two will be asymmetric. Tax policy is one of the most important factors affecting macroeconomic variables. Studying changes in tax revenue in response to variations in GDP is the key concept in this area. Based on the above argument, the main purpose of this study is to examine tax elasticity at a micro level (called tax stickiness). The rate of change in corporate income tax is compared to changes in corporate income (profit). Tax stickiness exists when the rate of tax reduction is less than the rate of profit reduction.  

In this study, data were collected from a sample of 284 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange, TSE, in the period 2012-2019. Data were analyzed using a regression model.  

The results showed that there is no tax stickiness in the studied companies. Also, the effects of the variables of economic growth and capital intensity are not significant. However, financial leverage can decrease tax stickiness. In the third and fourth hypotheses, the effects of economic growth and capital intensity on tax stickiness were tested. It is argued that in the conditions of economic growth and high capital intensity, the level of investment of the companies increases, and the tax revenue from capital raises. Given that there is no capital tax in the tax structure, the lack of effects of economic growth and capital intensity on tax stickiness in the companies under study can be justified.  

The reasons for the lack of effects of economic growth and capital intensity on tax stickiness can be attributed to government tax policies, reduction of reliance on corporate income tax in the studied years, and low attention to the capital taxation in the tax structure. On the other hand, tax stickiness can be attributed to the expertise of the TSE companies in tax planning compared to the non-TSE companies. In short, given the importance of tax revenue in the current condition of sanctions (reducing economic growth rates), it is desirable to allocate appropriate weight to capital tax in the state tax structure. The positive effects of revealing the uncertain tax situation and the motivation of managers' reward on tax avoidance, and the prominence of these features in the TSE companies compared to the non-TSE companies can be interpreted as non-stickiness of taxes. Also, in terms of the positive effects on tax avoidance, the lack of tax stickiness in the TSE companies can be attributed to the overconfidence of the managers of these companies. All these features can be the reasons for the non-sticking of income tax to the companies under study.

Company growth and profitability forecasts are important inputs in the valuation process. Also, mean reversion estimates can serve as inputs in estimating steady-state final value parameters. The main purpose of this study is to test the hypothesis that life cycle-based mean reversion models provide better results for forecasting profitability and growth compared to the industry-level and economy-wide models. This study also tests the hypothesis that managers realize the benefits of industry and life cycle analysis when making their predictions. Totally, this study compares the variables and factors affecting the accuracy of predictions from mean reversion life cycle-based models with industry-level and economy-wide models.  

The data of 161 companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange, TSE, in a 10-year period of 2008-2018 were collected from the software, financial statements, and the TSE official website. To test the research hypotheses, we used statistical tests such as t- student, multivariate regression using SPSS software, econometrics estimation using Eviews. The Dickinson (2011) model was used to determine the different stages of the companies' life cycle, which is consistent with the pattern of cash flows (operating activities, investment, and financing).  

Test results of the first hypothesis, in most cases, provided evidence that growth and profitability forecasts derived from industry-level mean reversion models outperform the forecasts of the life cycle and the economy-wide models. By comparing the mean errors in the second hypothesis, the findings of the model are more accurate than other models, indicating that managers realize the importance of the firm's life cycle when predicting profits. The results of the study of factors affecting the accuracy of the life cycle model of prediction compared to other models indicated that the improvement of life cycle growth forecasts lacks significant relationships with systematic and non-systematic risk, beta coefficient, trading volume, the ratio of institutional owners, the market-to-book ratio, and the amount and intensity of the R &D, the volume of intangible assets, and financial leverage. However, for higher profitability scales, improved life cycle forecasts correlate with firm size, assets and equipment, and abnormal (poor) corporate returns. Also, the life cycle approach works best when the percentage of institutional shareholder ownership is high and the company's uncertainty, profitability, and assets are low.  

In this study, we investigated the accuracy of a forecast model based on a firm life cycle for predicting future profitability and growth relative to economy-wide and industry-specific forecast models. In general, the results of the research indicate the relative superiority of the predictions of industry-level models over the predictions obtained from the life cycle and the economy-wide models. Although the research findings do not provide evidence of more explanatory power of the life cycle model compared to other models, they suggest that managers have realized the importance of the life cycle of the company when making profit forecasts. This research has important implications that help investors, analysts, managers, and others make better predictions when making financial decisions. Also, this study identifies the drivers of growth and profitability for companies through a low-cost and high employment strategy to achieve the most accurate forecasts.

The market structure shows the organizational characteristics of the market that is identified by the nature of competition and pricing in the market. The results of previous researches show the effects of the structure of the audit market on audit fees, audit quality, and competition in this market. Although this issue confirms the Structure-Conduct-Performance approach, according to the Chicago U.C.L.A. school, market performance affects market behavior and then market structure. Due to the importance of understanding the structure of the audit market and knowing how the market determines the fee and quality of auditing, identifying the factors affecting these two variables in the audit market is very important. Auditor specialization is one of the factors that affect the delegation of work to audit firms and the structure of the audit market. This issue increases the auditor market share in a particular industry because customers ask for the specialized services of auditors. The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between auditor specialization and audit market structure for the firms listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) during 2007-2018.  

Audit market structure was computed by concentration indexes, including concentration ratio, Herfindahl-Hirschman index, and Entropy Index. The total market shares of three auditing firms, the members of the Iranian Association of Certified Public Accountants with the highest market share per year, were used to calculate the concentration ratio. The market share approach was used for calculating auditor specialization. Data were collected for analysis using the Rahavard databases, the Codal site, and explanatory notes to the financial statements. For robustness tests, all three indices of the audit market structure including concentration ratio, Herfindahl-Hirschman index, and entropy index were calculated based on client sales. A Panel data model was used to test the research hypotheses.  

Results showed that auditor specialization has a direct and significant relationship with three audit market indices of concentration ratio, Herfindahl-Hirschman index, and Entropy Index. With an increase (decrease) in the specialization of the audit firm industry, the audit market concentration increases (decreases). Similarly, control variables, which included client size and concentration, has a direct and significant relationship with audit market concentration. The results of robustness tests showed that if the audit market concentration indicators are calculated based on the sales of the client, the research findings are robust.  

Auditor specialization arisen from auditor behavior is an important factor in the distribution of the market among audit firms and audit market concentration, which is consistent with Chicago U.C.L.A. School. Therefore, audit firms are encouraged to increase their specialization in a particular industry so they can gain more market share in the long run.

Object: 

The revival of Article 169 of the Direct Taxes Code is an important tax development in recent years in Iran. According to this article, taxpayers are required to upload their sale and purchase information in the form of quarterly reports on the website of the Tax Administration. The implementation of this article as a tax program aims to improve the quality of the tax system. If successful, the tax difference and tax avoidance of Iranian companies are expected to decrease. Meanwhile, some companies are not covered by this legal article. But Article 169 may have had an indirect effect on them. This study aims to investigate the effect of reviving the Article 169 of the Direct Taxes Code on tax difference and tax avoidance of companies subjected and non-subjected by this legal article.  

Data was collected using the document extraction method and reference to the database and then analyzed by Minitab and Stata software. To test the research hypotheses, paired t-statistics, and differences in differences approach were used. Changes in tax codes in an economic society directly affect the companies that are subject to those codes. At the same time, the non-subjected part of the community may be indirectly affected by the program because of its interactions with the subjected part. In this study, to differentiate the effects of the program in the subjected section in comparison with the non-subjected section of the society, the difference in difference estimator has been used. A sample of 135 companies was studied in the two groups of subjected and non- subjected in 2011 and 2012.

The findings showed that the revival of Article 169 of the direct tax code has significant effects on reducing tax differences and significant effects on reducing corporate tax avoidance. Also, the impacts on the subjected companies were significantly different from non- subjected companies.  

The results show that the tax gap between the subjected and non-subjected groups has decreased since the implementation of Article 169 of the Direct Taxes Code. In other words, the financial relationships and interactions between subjected and non-subjected companies have been such that the reduction of the tax differences has expanded from subjected to non-subjected. But this decrease is significantly different between the two groups. In other words, the implementation of the program has not created the same differences between the subjected and non-subjected groups. The findings indicate that the intensity of the impact of the revival of Article 169 of the Direct Taxes Code was greater in the subjected group than in the non-subjected group. The results also show that tax avoidances have decreased in both groups of subjected and non-subject companies. Research results show that the reduction of tax avoidance has not been similar for the two groups. In other words, both groups are affected by the implementation of the program, but there is a significant difference between the results of differences between the two groups.

Economic psychology’s research suggests that personality traits are associated with wealth accumulation or allocation decision making. Since dividend policy is also a wealth accumulation decision at the company level, it is likely to be affected by the personality traits of the management team. According to Upper Echelons' theory (UE), decisions of the senior management team can affect the company's financial performance. Although many studies have reported the effects of the characteristics of the management team on financial strategies, few studies have examined the personality traits and their effects on financial strategies. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between managerial personality traits and dividend policy in the companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange.  

The personality trait criterion consists of five specific personality characteristics, including agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism (emotional instability), extraversion, and openness to experience. Big five personality characteristics are considered the most widely accepted glossary of personality traits. The use of this model has increased in financial and economic researches. A major challenge to examine the effects of executive personality is the cost and difficulty of measuring. Measuring personality traits usually requires the use of costly tools or in-depth interviews that are especially difficult for large samples. To measure these personality variables, we used the short form of the NEO personality questionnaire. In the short model, 12 questions measure each factor. Many countries have approved the short form of the questionnaire. To measure earnings policy, we used two variables of dividend to sales ratio and dividend to net profit after tax. The statistical sample consists of 71 companies listed in the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2008 to 2017, and the questionnaire’s participants are the CEO or CFO of these companies. In this study, we used a quasi-experimental design and a post-event approach. To test the hypotheses, we used a structural equations model (version 3 of Smart PLS software).  

The results of this study provide new insight into the factors affecting dividend payout policy. The results showed that after controlling the variables of firm size, growth of profitability, and growth of opportunities, there is a negative and significant relationship between agreeableness and dividend policy and a positive and significant relationship between management conscientiousness and dividend policy. This study also showed no significant relationships between each of the three personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, and Openness to Experience) and dividend policy.  

The findings indicate that some personality traits have affected the corporate dividend policy. The results confirm the Upper Echelons theory and show that the characteristics of the top management team affect a company's financial choices and performance. Due to the effect of personality traits on financial practices, companies need to use psychological and personality interviews in addition to scientific interviews to select their managers. To determine companies' financial strategies, investors and financial analysts need to consider the factors beyond the financial and accounting variables, such as behavioral and personality characteristics of corporate executives.

Overconfidence is an interdisciplinary concept related to the possibility of misjudgment in psychology. More importantly, management overconfidence is a concept derived from behavioral financing. Overconfidence can define unfounded belief in one's cognitive abilities, judgments, and intuitive reasoning. Overconfidence is one of the most important personality traits of managers that affect risk-taking companies in prioritizing their financial resources in terms of cost. Companies prefer to use the domestic budget and then the external financial resources as a last resort to issuing new shares. Because managers with overconfidence feel optimistic about the profitability of their business, they assume the capital market is underestimating their stock. In cases where the entity needs financing, they prefer financing through issuing bonds instead of issuing shares and think they may increase the wealth of shareholders by choosing debt with a short-time maturity. Overconfidence is irrational behavior, and corporate executives express it when making business decisions. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between overconfidence management and investment efficiency with emphasis on the mediating role of internal financing In the companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange, TSE, over the period 2009-2018.  

Data collection completed using modern software, financial statements of the TSE official website. To test the research hypotheses, we used a panel data model with Eviews software. In this research, the statistical sample consists of information and data of 101 companies from the TSE. This study tests five hypotheses. The logarithm of total assets was used to measure the control variable of company size, and the ratio of long-term debt to total assets to measure the financial leverage control variable.  Also, the ratio of net profit to total assets was used to assess the control variable of return on assets, and the ratio of net profit to equity to assess profitability.  

Overconfidence in management has a positive and significant relationship with internal financing. Internal financing has a positive and significant relationship with overinvestment and a negative and significant relationship with underinvestment. Internal financing does not have any mediating effect on the relationship between management overconfidence and investment efficiency. Control variables are firm size, financial leverage, return on assets, and profitability. The difference between earnings per share and real earnings per share measures the management distrust. The logarithm of the accumulated profit and legal reserves measure the variable of domestic financing, and investment efficiency is divided into two variables of over-investment and under-investment.

As managers become more confident, their willingness to use internal resources increases, and as internal financing rises, managers tend to invest more. Manager's distrust is an essential factor in financing so that managers with overconfidence incline to raise domestic financing and investment more than others.

According to recent financial and economic studies, taxes are the principal part of government revenues, and the stability of these revenues, compared to other volatile revenues, requires establishing an appropriate tax system. Although much works have been done in the last two decades to develop the Iranian tax system, there is still a long way before reaching a desirable tax system. It is noteworthy that the role of information and communication technologies, ICT, in the development of a tax system is remarkable. In the current situation, due to the increase in the number of enterprises and economic actors, the complexity of economic activities, and other intricacies, it is not possible to reform the government tax system, except through modernization of the system, use of ICT, and monitoring the financial and economic information of individuals, companies and electronic tax processes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of ICT on corporate income tax collection from the perspective of tax officials and senior managers of companies and compare their views.  

The statistical population of this study consists of tax officials, senior managers, and accountants of companies across the country. Due to the uncertainty about population size, the sample size based on Cochran's formula with an error of 5% was obtained about 384 people. In this study, a quality questionnaire, whose reliability and validity have been verified, was used to collect data. Cronbach's alpha method was used for reliability testing. Also, in this study, to assess the content validity of the measurement tool, a preliminary questionnaire was presented as a "limited test" for some experts to provide recommendations for the questions. These recommendations were included in the final questionnaire. It was concluded that the assessment tool has the desired content validity. In this study, inferential and descriptive statistics have been used to analyze the information. For inferential analysis and to analyze the data, a one-sample t-test and an Independent two-sample t-test were used. Friedman tests were used for ranking. SPSS software version 23 was used to analyze the data.  

The findings of this study showed that the use of information and communication technologies gives rise to an increase in the access of tax authorities to tax information, increase in corporate tax compliance, reduction in tax compliance costs, increase in corporate income tax collection, rise of corporate income tax transparency, and higher effectiveness and efficiency of corporate income tax collection. And, statistically, there is a significant difference between the views of tax officials and senior managers and accountants of companies only in terms of the effect of using ICT on the amount of income tax collection, and in other cases, there is no significant difference.  

The use of ICT affects the collection of income tax. Increasing investment in ICT is associated with increased tax collection.

Stakeholders such as shareholders, legal entities, investors, and the financial services industry are often praised for their vital role in society. This issue occurs while others believe that the financial industry needs to strengthen the corporate strategy system to increase organizational capabilities and economic growth. A third group believes that those are involved in the financial industry can bring far-reaching benefits to society by reducing injustice in the distribution of poverty and income. Many researchers consider ethics as an important factor in dealing with behavioral anomalies. The purpose of this study is to explain the ethical and unethical behaviors of earnings management using advanced structural models.  

The present study is of semi-experimental and semi-applied type and is performed by the qualitative or judgmental method in different stages. The field research was conducted after a random selection of 403 financial managers of the Tehran Stock Exchange.  

Analysis of relationships between variables based on the method of structural equations showed that ethical pressure, organizational ethical beliefs, the culture of aversion to power, and ethical justification affect profit management behavior.  

The analysis of opinions consistency showed that there is a consensus about the ethical and immoral behaviors of earnings management between types of public opinions, regardless of gender, age, experience, marital status, and level of education and the public unanimously exposes the high importance of earnings management behaviors. Some compelling factors made it clear. After diagnostic tests consisting of the evaluation of normality of the distribution of variables, homogeneity of variances, confirmatory factor analysis, and validation of the estimation of the structural equation model, we used advanced structural equation models, path analysis, and regression estimation to interpret the direct relationship between directional behavior and the effective factors of moderating variables in these relationships. Finally, the coefficient of determination was estimated to validate the relationships and the t-student statistic was used to measure the significance of these relationships. Summarizing the relationships among variables showed that ethical pressures have positive impacts on the formation of one's moral beliefs and one's level of moral justification. Ethical justification has a positive impact on earnings management behaviors. The level of one's moral beliefs has a positive effect on his or her moral justification. Organizational culture for individual empowerment has a positive effect on ethical beliefs, ethical justification, and ultimately, on profit management behaviors. A person's moral beliefs exacerbate the relationship between the moral pressure on the individual and his or her level of moral justification. Finally, one's escapist culture exacerbates the relationship between ethical pressures on the individual and the emergence of profit management behaviors.