The Financial Reporting Quality, Managing the Tone of Annual Reports and Abnormal Audit Fee

Agency Theory and Signaling Theory, it reinforces the fact that honesty and accuracy have not been observed in the preparation of annual reports, this will lead to agency costs for companies. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the mediating role of managers' explanatory reports in the relationship between the quality of financial reporting and abnormal audit fees and the effect of unusual fees on the quality of financial reporting in the Iranian Stock Exchange. This study examines research hypothesis by using the panel data of 118 accepted companies in Tehran Stock Exchange during 2013-2018. The linear regression and Sobel test are also used to test hypothesis. The results of this study are in line with the opportunistic perspective and agency theory and audit fee pressure. Findings of this study show that motivation of managers for using positive tone in annual reports is increased when the quality of financial reports is low and that tone was directly related to the auditors' unusual pay. Moreover, managers’ reports tone can have the role of mediating in relation between financial reporting quality and abnormal audit fee. Finally, managers can’t use extraordinary audit fees as a tool to cover the low quality of financial reporting.