Corporate America’s long war to reduce audit fees—which it has been winning in recent years—seems to have reaped benefits for non-audit fees as well, according to a comprehensive new study.
Non-audit fees paid to a company’s external auditor went from 51 percent of a company’s total auditing bill in 2002 to only 20 percent in 2008, according to a study by research firm Audit Analytics. Non-audit fees also declined as a portion of a company’s revenue, from $399 per $1 million in revenue in 2002 to only $142 per $1 million in 2008—a drop of 64.5 percent.
Whalen
To some extent, the ...