Progress towards harmonisation of audit exemption in the EU and the case of the UK

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which the EU has achieved harmonisation in terms of audit exemption for small companies. Using the case of the UK, it analyses the sufficiency of turnover as a surrogate for the motivation of the directors of small, private companies to have a voluntary audit of their annual financial statements. Data is drawn from a survey which was conducted at a time when the UK government was consulting on a proposal to raise the size thresholds for a small company to the EU maxima