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Auditor Materiality in Expanded Audit Reports: More (Disclosure) is Less

Dwyer, Karen Ann orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-4387-3875, Brennan, Niamh M. and Kirwan, Collette E. (2023) Auditor Materiality in Expanded Audit Reports: More (Disclosure) is Less. Australian Accounting Review, 33 (1). pp. 31-45. ISSN 1835-2561

Abstract
The United Kingdom (UK) Financial Reporting Council (FRC) introduced expanded audit reports to improve audit report disclosures and render audits more transparent to financial statement users. This study examines audit materiality threshold disclosures, providing descriptive evidence of how auditors disclose materiality information in UK audit reports. This research uses manual content analysis (i) to assess auditors’ benchmarks and the percentages auditors apply to those benchmarks. The analysis examines (ii) auditors’ use of non-GAAP benchmarks, including non-recurring and recurring item exclusions and (iii) auditors’ rationales for their benchmark choices. The research finds that auditors choose a wide variety of benchmarks and apply a wide range of percentages to the chosen benchmarks. Non-GAAP adjustments are pervasive. Auditors’ rationales for benchmark choices include that the benchmark is a financial statement performance measure, and the benchmark eliminates volatility. The authors question whether the FRC's expanded disclosures have met its transparency objectives and concludes that ‘more (disclosure) is less’.
Metadata
Item Type:Article (Published)
Refereed:Yes
Subjects:Business > Accounting
Business > Finance
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > DCU Business School
Publisher:John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd
Official URL:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/a...
Copyright Information:Authors
ID Code:32666
Deposited On:19 May 2026 13:32 by Tam Nguyen . Last Modified 19 May 2026 13:32
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