AAA Spark Meeting of Regions

The Complexity of the Audit of Fair Value: An Exploratory Study in the Tunisian Context

• In Event: External and Internal Audit

Abstract

• The rising use of fair value in financial reporting increases the difficulty of the auditors' task in providing reasonable assurance. The aim of this research is to conduct an exploratory study on Tunisian auditors who have experience and expertise in the audit of fair value in order to explore the effects of underlying environmental, task, and auditor-specific factors and their interactions that contribute to the complexity of the audit of fair value. We also highlighted the difference in the challenges between financial and non-financial fair value. To organize our discussion, we rely on an established theoretical research framework that examines auditor judgment through an analysis of three critical and interactive factors of the judgment process— the environment, the task, and the person. We will also analyze the impact of the factors that increase the complexity of the audit of fair value on the audit quality of fair value. We believe that our results will help to identify potential sources of and remedies for, observed audit deficiencies.
KEYWORDS: Fair value; The Audit of Fair Value; Factors of Complexity; Challenges; Audit Quality of Fair Value

Authors

• Syrine Rahmouni, Higher Institute of Accounting and Business Administration

• Emna boumediene, professor in accounting

• Salem L Boumediene, University of Illinois-Springfield