A Literature Review on the Auditor’s Independence Between Threats and Safeguards

Abstract

The paper aims to identify the threats to the auditor's independence and to discuss this subject from a theoretically point of view. Auditor independence is one of the seven principles of professional ethics, necessary to perform a fair and professional audit engagement. In this paper, I have reviewed the literature and analyzed some of the most relevant scientific articles that have researched this topic. For the case study, I chose to analyze the most relevant papers in this area taking into account the objective pursued by the author, the research methodology, the selected sample, the variables and the category of threats to auditor independence. Subsequently, were split the discovered threats into groups and identified a series of safeguards to limit the threats to the auditor's independence. The main conclusion is that an in-depth knowledge, the exercise of the procedures for mitigating the effects of threats to the auditor's independence and compliance with professional and ethical rules are factors that ensure the successful performance of an audit process.