Enhancing the Auditor's Report: To What Extent is There Support for the IAASB's Proposed Changes?

This article outlines proposed reforms to auditor reporting currently being considered by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB), and other key national and transnational standard-setters and regulatory bodies. It adds to recent academic contributions\udon reforming the auditor’s report by analyzing the 165 stakeholder responses to the IAASB’s 2012 Invitation to Comment: Improving the Auditor’s Report to determine levels of support for the IAASB’s proposed reforms, and the differences, if any, between the views of various\udrespondents based on stakeholder groups (e.g. audit and assurance firms, users, preparers, regulators, etc.) and regional classifications. Guided by insights from communication theory, our results show the levels of stakeholder support for the IAASB’s proposed reforms\udaddressing auditors’ expectations, information and communication gaps are mixed. The strongest overall support was for enhanced auditor reporting on other information attached to, or intended to be read with, the financial statements, and the least supported initiative was\udincluding additional information in the auditor’s report about the auditor’s judgements and processes. Whilst overall there is generally consensus across both stakeholder groups and regions concerning the various questions investigated, we highlight where statistically\udsignificant differences between groups do exist. Notably, North American respondents were less likely to support a number of the IAASB’s proposed reforms than their counterparts from other regions