Surveys and reports on audit fees across firms can help you benchmark charges in the sector. On this page you can access a range of articles, books and online resources providing quick links to surveys, guidelines and reports.
Expert help for your enquiries and research.
Statistics on the accountancy profession: Audit firms
Research guide produced by the ICAEW Library & Information Service highlighting key sources for accountancy market data and sources for statistics on audit firms, including fee income and stock market clients.
Financial Director magazine conducts an annual audit survey covering the FTSE 350. Current and previous surveys include:
The sixth annual FTSE-100 audit fees survey
Article in Financial Director discussing the results of the survey of the Sixth Annual Survey of FTSE-100 Audit Fees for 2003.
HSBC tops audit fee survey
Article in AccountancyAge discussing the results of the survey of the Fifth Annual Survey of FTSE-100 Audit Fees for 2002.
Audit Fees Survey 2022
International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) report investigating how much audit costs and how this compares to the fees companies pay for other professional services provided by statutory auditors. The report quantifies audit fees as a percentage of corporate revenue, using data across a range of companies trading on US, Canadian and European stock exchanges from 2013 to 2020.
The Determinants of Audit Fees – Evidence from the Voluntary Sector
Paper by Alan Goodacre, Vivien Beattie, Ken Pratt and Joanna Stevenson published in November 2000 by the University of Stirling.
The Library provides access to leading business, finance and management journals. These journals are available to logged-in ICAEW members, ACA students and other entitled users subject to suppliers' terms of use.
The U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) had been considering requiring mandatory audit firm rotation, but has been discouraged by a European trend towards lower audit fees since the European Parliament approved mandatory rotation. Audit fees seem to have dropped between 20-40% in Europe - with the UK being an exception to this.
The article examines the impact of the changes to auditor-client relationships on audit fees. It outlines the auditing rules implemented by the Competition Commission of Great Britain and European Union (EU). It discusses issues on the strategy of accounting firms in bidding or tendering audit contracts, purchasing power of audit firms, corporate governance code revisions, and auditor switches by companies as a result of the regulations and as an expression of good corporate governance.
The article discusses developments in the statutory audit services market, particularly in Great Britain, as of July 2016. Also cited are the changes to the Corporate Governance Code in the country, the 2014 Audit Regulation & Directive (ARD) issued by the European Union (EU), the guidance on how to best manage an audit tender, and the factors that affect the selection of audit firms like commercial confidentiality. **Please contact the library to be supplied with a copy of this article**
Click on the links below to see our catalogue record for each article.
Scaling the FTSE 100
Accountancy, November 2014, pages 8-14
The Big Four still have a firm hold on the top 100 audtis but mid-tier firms are trying hard to ensure a fair contest. Includes the table FTSE 100 auditors survey 2013/14, tables companies ranked by audit value; constituent members FTSE 100 (in/out) and post-annual report auditor switches.
Does corporate tax aggressiveness influence audit pricing?
Contemporary Accounting Research, Spring 2014, pages 84-308
The authors evaluate whether, and under what circumstances, corporate tax aggressiveness influences audit pricing. Using a compound measure of two long-run effective tax rates, they find that tax-aggressive firms pay higher fees for external audit services after controlling for factors related to earnings management. Overall, the evidence implies firms' aggressive tax behaviour, tax services provider, and auditor expertise interact to influence the pricing of auditing engagements.
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