| Summary: | 近年來在會計師事務所積極擴張其專業服務版圖的情況下，會計師事務所逐漸發展成橫跨多項專業領域的多元化組織。為對企業營運問題提供完整的解決方案，會計師事務所聘用律師或與法律事務所進行策略聯盟，已是無可避免之趨勢。但會計師事務所對審計客戶提供法律服務則可能衍生出一些新問題，並使外部第三者對其適當性產生疑慮。因此本研究旨在探討當會計師事務所對審計客戶提供法律服務時，財務報表使用者對審計人員獨立性與財務報表可靠性之認知與判斷情形，而研究目的則是驗證法律服務類型、法律公費金額重大性與事務所職員分離程度對財務報表使用者反應的可能影響。
研究結果發現，當審計客戶之法律公費構成重大的財務關係時，將顯著影響報表使用者對審計人員獨立性及財務報表可靠性之認知與判斷；另外職員分離程度亦顯著影響報表使用者對審計人員獨立性及財報可靠性之認知情形；但法律服務類型對上述項目之影響則僅為部分顯著。其次，有效保障機制的設計與執行，包括「限制法律服務收入之金額重大性」、「對法律服務公費及服務內容設立強制揭露之規定」、「建立防火牆」與「簽署保密棄權書」等，應有助於維持審計人員之外觀獨立性，並且是財務報表使用者心目中最合理的規範方式。
=== In recent years, CPA firms have continued to expand the types of professional services offered both to their audit and non-audit clients and become multidisciplinary organizations. In many cases, they found it necessary to employ lawyers or to enter into strategic alliances with law firms in order to provide complete solutions to business problems. The increase in such arrangements raised new questions and concerns regarding their propriety when legal services were provided to audit clients. This research assessed financial statement users’perceptions of auditor independence and financial statement reliability when a CPA firm offered legal services to its audit clients. The objective was to test financial statement users’reactions to different types of legal services that CPA firms offered to their audit clients, as well as the effects of the materiality of the engagement and the degree of staff separation involved in the provision of such services.
Results indicated that a financially material business relationship affected financial statement users’perceptions regarding independence and related judgments of financial statement reliability. The degree of staff separation between auditors and lawyers was also found to affect perceptions of independence and related judgments of financial statement reliability. The type of legal services offered had a lesser effect on responses. This study suggested that with certain mitigating/safeguarding procedures in place, e.g., legal fee magnitude restrictions, legal service disclosure requirements, firewalls, and client waivers, users’perceptions of auditor independence and financial statements reliability may not be impaired when CPA firms provide legal services to their audit clients.
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