Statutory, tax, and internal audits, plus Ind AS and accounting standards.
17 guides
Statutory audit, tax audit, and internal audit answer different questions and follow different rules, and the distinction matters well beyond terminology, since it decides which standards apply and what an auditor is actually required to check. This section covers that distinction directly, alongside the mechanics practitioners deal with most: which Form 3CD clauses cause the most trouble during tax audit season, what CARO 2020 actually requires an auditor to report on, and how a qualified opinion differs from an unqualified one in practice.
It also covers audits that don't fit the standard three: concurrent and statutory bank audits, forensic audit engagements, and the internal financial controls reporting the Companies Act requires. If you're a practicing or aspiring CA trying to stay current, the Ind AS updates guide is written specifically to track what's changed recently rather than restate settled standards.
Audit & AssuranceA stock audit is not a scaled-down statutory audit. It exists because a bank has lent working capital against stock it has never physically seen, and wants independent proof the collateral is real.
Audit & AssuranceAn auditor can walk away from an audit with a letter and a filing. A company that wants to walk an auditor out the door before their term ends needs a special resolution and the government's approval first. That asymmetry is deliberate, and it runs through rotation, resignation, and removal alike.
Audit & AssuranceMost CA articles can define a statutory audit before they have ever actually walked through one. Here is the real sequence, from the engagement letter to the signed opinion, and how each stage feeds the next.
Audit & AssuranceAn audit that was performed well but documented thinly is indistinguishable, in a file, from one that was not performed at all. SA 230 defines the difference, and it is the standard peer reviewers and inspectors read your work against.
Audit & AssuranceBank branch audits are not applied for directly. They come through ICAI's panel, built from the MEF you file each year, and the category your firm lands in decides the size of branch you are eligible for.
Audit & AssuranceSince 2018 an auditor in India answers to one of two bodies depending on who the client is. Here is where the line falls, what powers each side holds, and why the two have been in open disagreement.
Audit & AssuranceA peer review certificate has quietly become a precondition for whole categories of audit work. Here is what the review examines, how a practice unit prepares, and why most observations are about documentation rather than judgement.
Audit & AssuranceEvery certificate, audit report, and attestation a practising CA signs needs a UDIN. Here is what the number actually does, which documents are covered, and the deadline most members get wrong.
Audit & AssuranceMost of a tax audit is routine. Four clauses account for nearly all the late nights, and each one needs data that lives outside the accounting system.
Audit & AssuranceQualified, adverse and disclaimer opinions can look similar from a distance but rest on different tests entirely. Here is what materiality and pervasiveness actually decide.
Audit & AssuranceConcurrent audit, statutory branch audit and RBI's own supervision often get treated as one blur called bank audit. They test different things, on different timelines.
Audit & AssuranceCARO 2020 asks auditors to report on far more than CARO 2016 ever did, from whistle-blower complaints to a company's ability to pay its bills next year.
Audit & AssuranceA forensic audit asks a different question than a statutory audit: not whether the statements are fair overall, but whether something specific actually happened.
Audit & AssuranceIFC reporting under the Companies Act often gets treated as a checklist. It is actually a controls audit with its own risk assessment, testing and opinion.
Audit & AssuranceInd AS never really sits still: it keeps absorbing convergence updates. Here's what practicing CAs should be watching, and why it matters for clients.
Audit & AssuranceThree audits, three different laws, three different audiences: business owners often assume they're the same exercise done thrice. They rarely are, and mixing them up gets expensive.
Audit & AssuranceCrossing the turnover threshold isn't the only way a Section 44AB tax audit becomes mandatory. Presumptive taxation choices can quietly trigger it too.