Department of Accounting, Bonab Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bonab, Iran. , Jafari.ali.iau@gmail.com
Abstract: (24 Views)
The annual report is one of the most important documents and most often consulted. The readability of annual reports is an important feature that determines the quality of communication between a firm and its stakeholders. It helps increase users' understanding of management's claims and prevents misinterpretation and misuse of reports. This research paper aims to investigate the impact of annual reports readability on audit effort. For this purpose, a sample of 153 companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange between 2016 and 2023 was studied. The research hypotheses were tested using multiple regression analysis based on panel data. The research findings show that the annual reports readability has a negative and significant effect on the audit report lag and audit fees. In other words,higher annual reports readability is associated with lower audit report lag and lower audit fees, suggesting that auditors spend less effort auditing clients when annual reports have higher readability.