Deferred Tax Impact on Auditor Change

This study aims to determine whether firms are engaging in opportunistic behavior by using auditor change.Studies are being published on the possibility that the audit opinion is not independent and the process is unfair.There is a need to investigate whether the replacement of auditors is being exploited opportunistically.To this end, this study largely conducts three analyses.First, we analyze whether the auditor change in the previous period affects the deferred tax in the current period.Second, we investigate whether the change in deferred tax after auditor change varies depending on the firm's characteristics.Third, we analyze whether managers with earnings management motivation use auditor changes to change deferred taxes.The analysis results are as follows.First, deferred tax liabilities remained unchanged after the previous auditor was replaced.Second, when a large audit firm replaced the previous auditor, the firm's deferred tax liabilities decreased.Third, firms with an earnings management motive replaced the previous auditor with a large audit firm, lowering their deferred tax liabilities.Attempts to manipulate accounting information were checked using relatively complex deferred tax and colluding with auditors.This study is expected to identify factors that reduce audit quality in the capital market and provide an opportunity to prepare future institutional monitoring measures from various angles.