지주회사와 비지주회사 사이의 감사보수 차이

The proportion of holding companies have increased dramatically but academic studies rarely examine the issues related to the holding companies. This study investigates whether auditors of holding companies charge higher or lower audit fees. On the one hand, auditors may charge lower fees to the holding companies. It is because audits for holding companies tend to be relatively simple, or because auditors intend to please the holding companies in order to secure additional audit contracts from the subsidiaries of the holding companies. On the other hand, auditors may charge higher fees to holding companies. It is because holding companies are important clients that may bring a lot of visibility and liability to the auditors, and because audits for holding companies are more complex than those for stand-alone companies due to the necessity of communication with the auditors of their subsidiaries. The empirical results support the former predictions. The finding persists even after controlling for the effect of the parent companies which prepare the consolidated financial statements. Furthermore, we find that auditors of the holding companies even charge lower fees when a large portion of the subsidiaries are audited by the auditor of holding company. These findings provide interesting insights for various stakeholders, including policy-makers and shareholders.