HKICPA Survey: IAASB Proposed International Standing on Auditing (Revised) 500, Audit Evidence

The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) opened the public consultation for proposed changes to one of its fundamental standards, International Standard on Auditing (ISA) 500, Audit Evidence.

The extant ISA 500 addresses an auditor’s responsibility to design and perform audit procedures to obtain sufficient appropriate evidence to draw reasonable conclusions on which to base the auditor’s opinion. The proposed changes:

Clarify ISA 500’s purpose and scope and explain its relationship with other standards;
Provide a principles-based approach to considering and making judgments about information intended to be used as audit evidence and evaluating whether sufficient appropriate audit evidence has been obtained;
Modernize ISA 500 to be adaptable to the current business and audit environment, while considering scalability for different circumstances, including the entity and the auditor’s use of technology, such as automated tools and techniques; and
Emphasize the role of professional skepticism when making judgments about information intended to be used as audit evidence and evaluating the audit evidence obtained.

To facilitate understanding, the Institute has produced an introductory video in Cantonese with English terminologies to provide an overview of the proposed changes.

The Institute is interested in hearing your views about the proposed standard. To collect these views, you are invited to take a survey which highlights the key attributes of the proposed ISA 500 (Revised) followed by yes/no questions. The survey should take less than twenty minutes to complete.

All responses are anonymous. Results of the survey will be used by the Institute to develop its response to the IAASB and will be presented in aggregate.

The survey is open until 24 March 2023.

If you would like to provide further written comments on this proposed standard, please refer to the Institute’s Invitation to comment.