Canadian Matrimonial Litigation Requires Reliability Testing for Unaudited Financial Statements

摘要

Accountants are not taking responsibility for Unaudited Financial Statements (UFSs) that are often used in matrimonial litigation for income valuation of self-employed individuals. There is a gap in the expectation between what Canadian CPAs believe their responsibility is for validation testing of UFSs and the litigation users perceive was done. Without verification testing, the potentially errant financial statements can be used to impute income for spousal and child support calculations. The purpose of this exploratory quantitative study was to investigate how matrimonial litigation users evaluate the reliability and potential usefulness of UFSs when created by CPAs and non-CPAs. The study incorporates observational, survey based and cross-sectional approaches to sampling the matrimonial lawyer population in Ontario, Canada. Litigation users in matrimonial disputes have the perception that validation testing was done that in fact was not. It was found CPA created UFS were on average 1.52 units more reliable when compared to non-CPA created UFS with a 95% confidence interval of 0.91 to 2.13. The litigation users perceived a difference in the level of reliability of UFSs for use within matrimonial disputes. Yet, the mean reliability between CPA and non-CPA created UFSs were 5.96 and 4.44 respectively. The findings from the survey revealed there is an expectation gap between perceptions of matrimonial litigation lawyers and CPAs as to the level of verification testing performed on UFSs for reliability. A future study into what CPAs currently perceive the uses of UFSs are in litigation may be beneficial. The survey findings also revealed there is a belief that non-CPA created UFSs may be used in matrimonial litigation. This study contributes to a better understanding of user's belief about validity and belief and perception of reliability of UFSs because a CPA created them within the matrimonial litigation process that relies upon these statements.