En analyse af revisionshonorarets udvikling fra 2004 til 2013

Abstract

In this thesis we will examine the development in the audit fee on listed companies from the Dan-ish C20-index in the period 2004 to 2013. Furthermore the information used in the analysis is based on the annual reports of the listed companies. Through our analysis we are trying to determine the significance of three key factors. Those fac-tors are: Firstly, the competition on audit fees has changed a lot during the last ten years. Following the financial crisis listed companies have had to reevaluate their expenses which include the audit fee. As a consequence the listed companies have contacted additional audit firms in order to reduce the audit fee. Secondly, the listed companies’ organizational changes affect the amount of work and documen-tation required in the audit. This should affect the size of the audit fee. Thirdly, since 2005 listed companies have had to comply with the rules of IASB on how they report their results in financial statements. As a consequence of this, already Danish listed companies had to change from complying with Danish law to comply with IFRS in 2005. When changing from Dan-ish law to IFRS the scope of submitted information changes a lot. This affect the work and docu-mentation of the auditor in regards to how much they have to take into account. This leads us to the three following questions. 1. What is the role of the competitive situation, and how does it affect the audit fee? 2. How do the organizational changes influence and affect the audit fee? 3. How do the rising retail requirements influence and affect the audit fee? We are well aware that other factors than the above mentioned, can have an impact on the de-velopment in the audit fee, for instance the growth in wages. Our analysis shows a decline in the audit fee meaning that the listed companies we examine have notably lower audit fees in the end of the period.