감사인 고용관계 독립성 규제 개선방안

This paper examines Korean laws and regulations regarding auditor independence in terms of employment relationship and compares them with those in foreign countries. Specifically, this study analyzes several provisions in the Certified Public Accountant Law prohibiting any accountant or accounting firm from performing audit of any company employing spouse of an accountant in audit engagement team and partner of accounting firm auditing the company. Those regulations in the major overseas countries including the United States, EU and Japan are compared. Auditor independence is not observable externally, and laws require auditors not to engage in audit of any company not to allow any threat leading to suspicion on audit independence. Certain provisions in the laws may not be considered in compliance because the provision are prohibiting audit engagements too generally without any measures available to ensure their implementation, raising validity and applicability issues of the laws, while violation of the provision requires the subjected company to terminate its audit contract in Korea. From the global perspective, examples of circumstances that create familiarity threats for a professional accountant in public practice include: - A member of the engagement team having a close or immediate family member who is a director or officer of the client. - A member of the engagement team having a close or immediate family member who is an employee of the client who is in a position to exert significant influence over the subject matter of the engagement. - A director or officer of the client or an employee in a position to exert significant influence over the subject matter of the engagement having recently served as the engagement partner. - A professional accountant accepting gifts or preferential treatment from a client, unless the value is trivial or inconsequential. - Senior personnel having a long association with the assurance client. However, circumstances, in accordance with the provision of Law of Certified Public Accountants in Korea, that create familiarity threats for a professional accountant in public and non-public practice, include a member of the engagement team having a spouse, although not a close or immediate family member, who is an employee of the client and not necessarily in a position to exert significant influence over the subject matter of the engagement. Based on the above, my suggestions are as follows. As far as employment relationship is concerned, first, the provision prohibiting generally accountant, whose spouse is employed as non-director or without involvement in financial reporting, by the audited company should be amended in line with the international code of ethics. Second, the provision prohibiting an accounting firm whose partner having spouse simply employed by the subject company from auditing the company should also be amended.