Study of Simultaneous Performance of Audit and Non-Audit Services on Auditor Independence from the Viewpoint of Academics and Stock Exchange Analysts

Failure of audit reports has recently leaded to fundamental criticisms toward auditing profession and the magnifying of profession defects (in order to stakeholders’ value protection). In this field, auditor not only intrinsically should be independent,, but also they should seem independent in auditing and attesting about financial statements. Considering the importance of independence, this paper simultaneous investigates the influence of performing audit and non-audit services on auditor independence. Also, the influence of non-audit services and a reliable organization supervision on simultaneous performing of audit and non-audit services and also auditing separation of duties on independence has been studied. Questionnaire tool was used for gathering required data and questionnaires were distributed between academics and stock analyzers. For gathering information from questionnaire, in which Likert spectrum was used for analysis, and testing hypotheses, proportion test and Minitab software were used. Research findings reveal that if audit and non-audit services were performed by two different groups of auditors, or if they were performed under supervision of a reliable supervisory organization, the impairment of auditor independence wont happen and the level of non-audit services and also the simultaneous performance of audit and non-audit services has no effect on auditor independence.