Audit Fee Discount, The possibility of fraud and Disclosure of Significant Distortions: Analyzing the moderating role of audit quality

The pressure of international sanctions and poor crisis management has gripped Iran's economy in recent years. In these circumstances, employers expect auditors to share in the economic pain and receive a discount on auditing fees. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of auditing fee reduction on the possibility of fraud of business managers and disclosure of significant distortions by auditors and also to investigate the moderating effect of contracting with quality audit firms on these relationships. The data used includes 130 companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange during the years 2016 to 2021. Logistic regression model based on panel data was used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses. The results of testing the research hypotheses show that the reduction of auditing fees has a negative (and positive) effect on the disclosure of material misstatements by auditors (and the likelihood of fraud by business managers). Significance by auditors and the likelihood of fraud by the directors and also confirmation of the adjustment effect of this variable on the relationship between the audit fee reduction on the disclosure of material misstatements by the auditors and the likelihood of fraud by the directors. Additional tests show that the requirement of the certified public accountant to adjust the audit fee by at least 70% in 2021 over the previous year highlights the results.