ABSTRACTThe auditor independence is constantly being questioned while discussing whether the auditor is really independent from the client. There are also factors threatening the auditor?s independency and decreasing the legitimacy towards the auditors. One example is the long-term relationship between the auditor and the client.The analysis model is the most useful for the auditor to control his independency. Former studies show that the auditor?s judgments about the threat to independence differed among the auditors.

Changes in the society engender changes in the practice of the auditor profession. Stricter laws, more detailed recommendations, and demands from the auditor?s clients have increased. The auditor constitutes a profession and therefore it is important that there is a trust since the auditor is the one that certifies the quality of the company?s economical information.

Changes in the society engender changes in the practice of the auditor profession. Stricter laws, more detailed recommendations, and demands from the auditor?s clients have increased. The auditor constitutes a profession and therefore it is important that there is a trust since the auditor is the one that certifies the quality of the company?s economical information.

Law and regulations regulate the auditors? independence. An auditor should not only be independent in general, but independence in fact and independence in appearance. However, the regulations do not specifically describe how to act independence. It is the concerns of the auditor were he puts his limit for the independence.

Title: The auditor?s recommendations to small businesses in the choice of K2 and K3Authors: Christopher Dimovski and Dennis Carlsson Published: Spring 2014 Background: The background of this study is the introduction of the new K-regulations. For small businesses, there is a possibility to choose between the rule-based K2 and the principal-based K3. It becomes mandatory to apply the K-regulations from 2014. We want with this study understand and explain the significance of the auditor and its recommendations to small businesses in the choice between K2 and K3. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe how the auditor makes recommendations to small businesses in the choice between K2 and K3 and through that create an understanding of what influence the auditor have when it makes recommendations and at the end contribute to the building of models. Formulation of problem: How can we understand and explain the auditor?s recommendations to small businesses in the choice of K2 and K3?Methodology: We have used a qualitative method where we have interview eight auditors.

This study is a semi-­structured, qualitative depth-­interview study investigating Swedish institutional investors' perception of the fact that companies purchase non-­audit services from its signing auditor and if they see this as a threat to auditor independence. The study focuses on independence in appearance rather than independence in fact. The study is based on the current media debate on auditor independence and aims to provide a deeper insight to enlighten legislators how users of audited financial information look at the problem. The study builds on agency theory's notion that there is an information asymmetry between management and shareholders, which the auditor is to reduce. The results show that Swedish institutional investors perceive that there is a threat to auditor independence when companies buy non­-audit services from its signing auditor.

Auditor independence is a subject that has been discussed frequently over the past decade. The meaning of auditor independence is complex and contains both independence of mind and independence in appearance. The environment must perceive the auditor as independent if the audited information is to have any value for the users of the audited statements. The aim of this Master?s thesis is to examine how auditors can manifest their independence.

Since 1999 auditors have an obligation, according to 42-44 §§ aktiebolagslagen (2005:551), to report suspicions of crime. The obligation to report means that the auditor is legally obliged to report any suspicious economical crime potentially committed by the executive director or a member of the board to a district attorney. Prior to the enactment it was almost impossible for the auditor to report any criminal suspicion due to the professional confidentiality. According to Ekobrottsmyndigheten the number of crime suspicion reports filed by auditors has reduced by 50 percent in the Stockholm-region between 2006 and 2010. However, after the enactment crime suspicion reports increased successively each year.

Auditors have a big role in society. The question of auditor independence has been debated frequently after the financial crisis. Long auditor tenure with clients has both advantages and disadvantages so the question is hard to solve.One of the traits that are encouraged with auditors is professional skepticism. An important part of professional skepticism is the personal skepticism of the auditor. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate if a high professional skepticism can increase auditor independence by increasing profession identification and decreasing client identification.

Aim: Earlier studies have investigated what impact the relationship between the auditor and their clients have on the auditor?s objectivity. There are different opinions about whether a close relationship harms or promote the auditors work. Furthermore there are studies that show what strategies the auditor (and client) tends to use in the negotiation between the two of them. On this basis we have chosen to study if there are any correlation between the nature of the auditor client relationship, the auditor?s negotiation strategy against the client and the auditor?s objectivity.Method: Because of our purpose to study if there is any correlation between the relationship, the negotiation strategies and the auditor´s objectivity we have chosen to implement a quantitative survey.

This is a bachelor essay in business and administration with concentration in accounting. The purpose of the essay is to describe and analyse how an auditor, who has had a close cooperation with a small owner-led company in several years, can obstruct the specific familiarity-threat and if it appears, secure that it does not affect the independence of the auditor.The conclusion of this essay contains two models which intend to describe how an auditor, as a suggestion, can obstruct the specific friendship-threat and if it appears secure the independence of the auditor..

Several industrial scandals, especially those about Enron and WorldCom, have lead to an intense debate about the independent audit and the independent auditor. A substantial part of the auditor?s income originates from counselling, and therefore the role of the auditor may be seen as double, and the auditor?s objectivity may be questioned. In the year of 2002, a new Auditors Act was legislated in Sweden. In the 21 § of the act, a model based on principles was introduced, to test the auditor independence in every single case.

This paper analyzes the auditor choices for a sample of 300 predominantly small Swedish firms, all located in Umeå. Our hypothesis was based on the complexity of a firm, the need of external financing, leverage, and the need of extra consultance from the auditfirm. Our definition of auditor quality is based on prior studies, and is frequently used by authors in this area. The assumption is based on that the auditor quality increases with the size of the auditfirm and the degree of the auditor. The auditor quality is therefor depending on the choice between an auditor from the group ?Big 5? or not, and the choice of an auditor with an higher degree.

The modern auditor is, because of an increased complexity, dependent on the use of experts. Simultaneously different scandals have occurred where the auditor in fact have been using experts. Although the auditor is using an expert, the auditor alone is responsible for the statement that the expert makes. Research simultaneously indicates that the auditor?s use of experts is a difficult task.

AbstractThe control of quality standard ISO 9001 has made the internal audit to be experienced as police authority and paragraph control. Because of that, motivation for internal auditors is low. To counteract the experience, there is a possibility to integrate internal audit with improvements in company?s processes. Theory has shown that a qualified and competent auditor can provide information that can help the organization's managements to make the right decisions that will improve product quality and result in new customer contracts.An opportunity to observe an internal and external audit at one of the case companies gave rise to this study.