Comments of the Auditing Standards Committee of the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association on Proposed Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements, Amendments to the Description of the Concept of Materiality

Abstract

SUMMARY In June 2019, the Auditing Standards Board (the Board) of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants issued a request for comment on its Proposed Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements, Amendments to the Description of the Concept of Materiality (the Proposal), which seeks to change the criteria for determining whether omissions or misstatements rise to the level of materially misstating financial statements from those that could reasonably be expected to influence economic decisions of a user, to those where there is a substantial likelihood that they would influence the judgment of a reasonable user. The comment period ends August 5, 2019. This commentary summarizes the participating committee members' views on feedback requested by the Board. Data Availability: The Proposal, including questions for respondents, is available at: https://www.aicpa.org/content/dam/aicpa/research/exposuredrafts/accountingandauditing/downloadabledocuments/20190605a/20190605a-ed-sas-ssae-materiality.pdf.