The market for Audit & Tax Consulting
The market for Auditing and Tax Consulting in Germany is characterised by a large number of companies with a heterogeneous provider structure. The respective chambers currently count almost 3,000 auditing and more than 10,000 tax consulting companies. The market volume, which is achieved with significant sales in the annual audit and audit-related consulting, amounts to about 16 billion euros. The audit service providers can be segmented into five groups: Big Four, mid-sized national audit firms including the Next Six or Next Ten, mid-sized regional audit firms, small firms and international networks/alliances.
Auditing: Differentiated range of services/p>
Lünendonk has been devoting an independent survey to the Auditing and Tax Consulting market since 2006. Over time, the range of services offered by the auditing companies has diversified significantly. Overall, most sales continue to result from auditing and tax consulting, with audit sales falling slowly but continuously in relation to the other services. In addition to audit and tax, advisory is playing an increasingly important role with its services in the areas of corporate finance, business and IT consulting – especially for the larger accounting companies. The Big Four now have the highest share of sales in this area. Since the need for transformation and consulting is increasing in the course of digitisation, large auditing companies in particular are increasing their range of services with expertise in the field of digital customer experience, digital consulting as well as software and analytics services.
Challenges: Digitalisation, internationalisation, recruitment, regulation
The audit and tax consulting business is highly dynamic. Topics such as internationalisation and recruitment have long been on the agenda of audit firms. In addition, the digital transformation is fundamentally shaping and changing the business. On the one hand, new business and competitive fields are opening up. On the other hand, regulation (e.g. rotation) and the discussion about the separation of audit and consulting as well as joint audit are presenting the industry with new challenges.