Audit fee determinants in mining sector companies: factors specific to clients, auditors and engagement

Purpose: Empirical studies concerning determinants which the amount of the fees for auditing a financial statement depends on are undertaken in the international literature. The review of the previous studies allowed the authors to distinguish three main groups of such factors. They concentrate around the character of a client, a category of an auditor who audits an entity and engagement in the auditing proces. This paper aims to determine the factors that influence the amount of an audit fee in European mining companies. Design/methodology/approach: The auditors’ reports for 2019 were analysed. The authors formulated the main hypotheses according to which the amount of an audit fee for a financial statement of listed mining sector companies depends on the factors specific to an audited entity (H1), a category of an auditor (H2) and complexity of the process of the audit of a financial statement (H3). The collected data were a basis to construct the model of linear regression. Findings: The results of the study carried out proved a strong statistically important relation between an audit fee for a financial statement and a size of an auditee expressed in a natural logarithm of the total assets. The essential relations were also confirmed between an audit fee for a financial statement and profitability of assets of audited companies, a category of an auditor and a number of Key Audit Matters verified during the audit and disclosed in the report by an statutory auditor. Furthermore, a relation between the amount of an audit fee for a financial statement and power of standards of reporting and auditing in a given country was confirmed. Research limitations/implications: On the one hand, the acceptance of a research sample narrowed down to the listed companies, doing business exclusively in the mining sector is an added value of the empirical research carried out, which enabled drawing conclusions for the chosen branch. On the other hand, the small research value limits the study. Practical implications: Our paper has some practical implications. The obtained results enable a comparison with the results of the previous empirical research and an evaluation of the determinants of the amount of audit fees of financial statements in the mining sector with other branches.