A STUDY ON THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE PROFESSIONAL SKILLS OF THAI ACCOUNTING PROFESSION IN CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS AND TAX AUDITOR CONTEXT

Abstract

The aim of this research is to study factors affecting to professional skills of the two types of Thai accounting professions; certified public accountants (or CPAs) and tax auditors (or TA). Even though, both accountants are responsible for auditing and assuring the financial statements. However, the certified public accountants are responsible for a juristic company; whereas the tax auditors focus on ensuring the correctness of financial statements for tax purposes of a juristic partnership with less than Baht 5.0 million in share registration. The sampling was 800 CPAs and TAs located in the area of Bangkok and Greater Bangkok. The survey questionnaire was using 1-5 likert scale with and open ended questionnaire to collect opinions from those accountants. The results indicates four factors that statistical significant differences between CPAs and TAs are; i) knowledge in revenue tax; ii) experience in auditing a variety of business; iii) attending continuing profession development program (CPD); and iv) joining activities with profession regulating bodies. Using multiple regression, the hypothesis testing indicates 7 factors that positively impact to the professional skills are; 1) knowledge in revenue tax; 2) knowledge in auditing; 3) experience in auditing a variety of business; 4) number of clients; 5) years of working experience in auditing; 6) attending continuing profession development program (CPD); and 7) continuing self-learningญ. Useful opinions from the respondents gathering from open-ended questions are summarized. The key findings are i) a need of having working experience as a prerequisite for TA before entering to a certification process; ii) a need to develop the collaborations between CPAs and TAs iii) a need to emphasis on using information system in auditing for both TA and CPAs; iv) improve CPD program by focusing on workshop training course rather than a lecture training course and e-learning. In addition, there are suggestions concerning standardization of TA’s audit fee and how the federation of professional accountants could improve their service to the members. Future research is in the area of studying other accounting professions to understand the differences and similarities among the professions to improve the professional skills of Thai accounting profession.