Research News

Business Administration and Business Economics, Saher Aqel

Field of Research:

M - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting

M4 - Accounting and Auditing

M40 - General
M41 - Accounting
M42 - Auditing
M48 - Government Policy and Regulation
M49 - Other

Name of author and co-authors on the published work; 

Aqel, Saher

Title of published work: 

Auditors’ Assessments of Materiality Between Professional Judgment and Subjectivity

Name of Journal or Book:  

Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica

Year:   2011

Journal volume:         Vol 7, No. 4/2011

Publisher’s name and address: 

The Faculty of Economic Sciences of the “Danubius” University from Galaţi, Romania

Abstract of Published work:

Abstract: Materiality has been and continues to be a topic of importance for auditors. It is considered as a significant factor in the planning of the audit procedures, performing the planned audit procedures, evaluating the results of the audit procedures and issuing an audit report. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in the concept of materiality motivated by concerns at the Sarbanes- Oxley Act, Securities and Exchange Commission and International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board issuance of proposed standards on materiality. The objective of this paper is to discuss and analyze comprehensively the concept of audit materiality including how materiality threshold is determined by

auditors. Auditing standards settings bodies pointed out that auditor’s determination of materiality threshold is a matter of professional judjment. As a judgmental concept, however, materiality is susceptible to subjectivity. Furthermore, the absence of audting standards on how materiality is determined has highlighted the significance of this issue and indicated that guidance for materiality professional judgments must come from other non-authoritative sources such as Empirical researches. A number of new and important areas of materiality are in need of further investigation.

Keywords: materiality threshold; quantitative and qualitative materiality factors; expectation gap

JEL Classification: M40; M42

Contact info of the contact author:

Lecturer of Accounting, Alquds University, Faculty of Business and Economics, East Jerusalem, Palestine, Phd Student of Accounting, Istanbul University, Turkey, Address: School of Business, Avcilar Campus, 34320, tel: +212 5577897, fax: +212 5918570, Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.