Investigating the Role of Loan Guarantees on Auditing Fees with Emphasis on Social Responsibility

One factor affecting audit risk and subsequently audit fee is loan guarantees, and companies by investing in the field of social responsibility, seek to reduce information asymmetry and maintain reputation and credibility in society. If auditors rely on the social responsibility of companies, it can affect the audit fee. In this regard, the data of 105 companies for the period 2009 to 2018 was tested. In order to fit the model of the multivariate regression pattern, the generalized least squares method was used, and to test the hypotheses, the panel data method with fixed effects and the Eviuse software were used. The findings showed that the received loan guarantee had a positive and significant effect on the audit fee, and social responsibility had a negative and significant effect on the relationship between the loan guarantee and the audit fee. The results indicated that since the loan guarantee bonds increase the risk and scope of the audit, it increases the audit fee, and also the disclosure of corporate social responsibility information reduces the effect of increasing the audit fee caused by the loan guarantee bonds. In other words, the information in social responsibility reports increases the transparency of information and reduces their asymmetry. In fact, it can be said that the adherence of companies to their responsibility towards society (social responsibility) makes them provide their financial information accurately to the auditors and the loans received from the banks in order to fulfill the objectives of the contract. Obtaining consumer loans (one of the problems of society is money laundering) will reduce the risk and ease of the audit process and thus reduce the fee.