The Audit Fees dataset contains structured annual audit fee disclosures extracted from DEF 14A proxy statements filed on EDGAR. Each record represents a single company-year observation: the fees paid by one SEC registrant to its principal independent registered public accounting firm for a completed fiscal year. The dataset captures all four fee categories mandated by SEC disclosure rules — audit fees, audit-related fees, tax fees, and all other fees — along with the auditor name, company identifiers (ticker, CIK, company name), and filing metadata. The dataset contains more than 139,000 audit fee records extracted from over 69,000 DEF 14A filings, covering more than 10,000 unique issuers from 2001 to the present. It is updated daily and distributed as .jsonl.gz (gzip-compressed JSON Lines) files for efficient bulk access.
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Each record is a structured extraction from the "Principal Accountant Fees and Services" section of a DEF 14A proxy statement. Rather than preserving the entire proxy document, the dataset normalizes the specific fee data points that public companies must disclose under Item 9(e) of Schedule 14A into machine-readable JSON records. The result is an analysis-ready dataset of auditor compensation across the full EDGAR-filing population — from micro-cap registrants paying under $100,000 in audit fees to S&P 500 companies paying millions annually. Across the full dataset, the median audit fee is approximately $732,000 and the mean is approximately $1.26 million, reflecting the wide spread between small filers and the largest public companies.
Each record in the dataset represents a single DEF 14A filing and contains the following structured fields:
0001193125-16-543341)DEF 14A2016-04-15T17:09:07-04:00)2016-05-31)Each filing includes an entities array identifying the registrant(s):
1318605)TSLA)TESLA MOTORS INC (Filer))1231 for December 31)DE) or country name for non-U.S. entities3711 Motor Vehicles & Passenger Car Bodies)34 for the Securities Exchange Act of 1934)001-34756)Each filing contains a records array with one or more fee records — typically two, covering the two most recent fiscal years as required by SEC disclosure rules. Each fee record includes:
2015)PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Deloitte & Touche LLP, Ernst & Young LLP, KPMG LLP, Grant Thornton LLP, BDO USA LLP, or any of the hundreds of smaller and regional firms registered with the PCAOB)Two-year comparative disclosure: SEC rules require companies to disclose audit fees for the two most recent fiscal years in each proxy statement. A single DEF 14A filing may therefore produce records for both the current-year and prior-year fiscal period.
Aggregate principal-auditor fees only: Disclosed figures represent total fees billed by the principal auditor. They do not break down fees by individual engagement, subsidiary audit, or geographic jurisdiction. Companies using multiple audit firms disclose fees only for the principal firm in the structured fee table.
Fiscal year alignment: Fee disclosures correspond to the registrant's fiscal year, not the calendar year. A company with a fiscal year ending June 30 reports fees for the 12 months ending June 30, and its proxy typically appears in the fall rather than spring.
Auditor transitions: When a company changes auditors, the proxy may report fees paid to both the predecessor and successor firm. The dataset captures the auditor identified as the principal auditor for the disclosure period.
Fee magnitude range: Audit fees span a wide range — from under $100,000 for smaller reporting companies to millions of dollars annually for the largest public companies. The 25th percentile sits around $270,000 and the 75th percentile around $1.66 million. The dataset spans the entire filer population, creating a wide distribution useful for cross-sectional analysis.
Audit fee disclosures originate from SEC registrants that file definitive proxy statements (DEF 14A) on EDGAR. The disclosing population spans:
Companies outside the DEF 14A population are excluded: foreign private issuers (who disclose fees in Form 20-F), registered open-end investment companies (who disclose in Form N-CSR), and private companies.
Audit fee disclosure is not event-driven. It is a mandatory annual disclosure embedded in the proxy statement filed in connection with the company's annual meeting of shareholders. The proxy includes a "Principal Accountant Fees and Services" section that itemizes fees billed by the principal independent registered public accounting firm for the two most recent completed fiscal years.
Most companies file their proxy statements 30 to 60 days before the annual shareholder meeting. For calendar-year-end companies, the proxy filing window runs primarily between March and June, meaning the fee disclosure appears roughly 3 to 6 months after the fiscal year-end to which the fees relate. Non-calendar-year filers follow their own schedule.
The four-category fee disclosure requirement is governed by several interlocking rules:
Fee disclosures serve a specific regulatory purpose: enabling shareholders and regulators to assess whether the auditor's non-audit fee revenue from a client creates a financial dependency that could compromise audit objectivity. The ratio of non-audit fees (audit-related + tax + all other) to audit fees is the standard quantitative metric. Rule 2-01 of Regulation S-X prohibits specific non-audit services outright — bookkeeping, financial information systems design, appraisal services, actuarial services, internal audit outsourcing, management functions, broker-dealer services, legal services, and expert services unrelated to the audit. Permissible non-audit services require audit committee pre-approval. The proxy fee table provides the quantitative evidence for evaluating compliance with these independence safeguards.
A full-text proxy dataset such as the DEF 14A Filings dataset preserves the entire DEF 14A document — executive compensation, board composition, say-on-pay proposals, related-party transactions, and dozens of other topics. The audit fees dataset extracts only the structured fee data from the "Principal Accountant Fees and Services" section. Researchers focused on auditor compensation skip document parsing entirely and work directly with structured numeric records.
Form 10-K identifies the principal accounting firm and includes the auditor's report, but it does not disclose fee amounts. Fee disclosure is a proxy statement requirement under Schedule 14A, not a 10-K requirement. The 10-K reveals who the auditor is and what opinion they issued; the proxy reveals what the company paid and for which categories of service.
Form AP, filed with the PCAOB since June 2017, discloses the engagement partner name and participation percentages of other accounting firms involved in the audit. Form AP does not disclose fees. The two sources are complementary: Form AP identifies who performed the work; the audit fees dataset quantifies what the company paid.
Foreign private issuers disclose audit fees in Form 20-F annual reports; registered investment companies disclose in Form N-CSR. Both follow similar fee category structures but cover different filer populations. This dataset captures domestic registrant proxy (DEF 14A) disclosures only.
| Dimension | Audit Fees Dataset | DEF 14A Full Text | Form 10-K | Form AP | Commercial (Audit Analytics) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fee amounts | Yes (4 categories) | Embedded in narrative | No | No | Yes (enriched) |
| Auditor name | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Engagement partner | No | No | No | Yes | Sometimes |
| Full document text | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Filer population | Domestic proxy filers | Same | Domestic | All PCAOB-registered | Vendor-selected |
| Machine-readable | Yes (JSONL) | Requires parsing | Requires parsing | Structured XML | Structured |
| Historical depth | 2001-present | 2001-present | Varies | 2017-present | 2001-present |
Audit committee members and board directors benchmark their company's audit costs against peers matched by revenue, industry, and operational complexity. They track the ratio of non-audit fees to audit fees to evaluate auditor independence risk and use fee comparisons when evaluating proposals during auditor selection or rotation.
Institutional investors and proxy advisory firms incorporate audit fee analysis into governance assessments. Elevated non-audit fee ratios may trigger negative voting recommendations on auditor ratification proposals. Abrupt fee changes or auditor switches accompanied by fee reductions can signal audit scope disputes or opinion-shopping risk.
Academic researchers in accounting and auditing rely on the dataset for empirical studies on audit pricing determinants, the relationship between non-audit services and earnings quality, Big Four vs. non-Big Four fee premiums, auditor tenure effects, fee consequences of SOX Section 404, and the impact of PCAOB inspections on audit pricing.
Audit partners and practice leaders at accounting firms analyze public fee disclosures to calibrate engagement pricing, prepare competitive proposals, and track fee trends by industry vertical and company size tier.
Securities analysts and equity researchers treat audit fee anomalies as supplementary risk indicators. Unexpected fee spikes may precede restatements, material weakness disclosures, or going concern opinions.
Compliance and risk professionals track peer fee levels to confirm their company's fee structure is consistent with market norms and satisfies the independence safeguards of Rule 2-01 of Regulation S-X.
Regulators and policymakers (SEC staff, PCAOB, GAO) study aggregate fee data to assess audit market concentration, evaluate the economic impact of new auditing standards, and determine whether fees correlate with audit effort and quality.
Legal counsel in securities litigation use fee data to support or defend auditor independence claims, citing non-audit fee ratios as evidence of potential financial dependency.
Compute the non-audit fee ratio (audit-related + tax + all other fees divided by total fees) for every company-year in the dataset. Flag registrants whose non-audit fee ratio exceeds a chosen threshold as potential independence risk cases. Cross-reference flagged companies against subsequent restatements, material weakness disclosures, and SEC enforcement actions to evaluate whether high non-audit fee ratios are predictive of audit failures. Proxy advisory firms can integrate this screening into voting recommendation models for auditor ratification proposals.
Group companies by SIC or NAICS industry code and revenue decile, then compute median and percentile distributions for audit fees and total fees. Audit committees use these benchmarks to evaluate whether their company's fees are in line with peers of comparable size and complexity. Accounting firms use them to price competitive proposals. The dataset's coverage of the full EDGAR population enables benchmarking across the entire market, not just a vendor-curated subset.
Calculate the percentage of total audit fees captured by each Big Four firm (Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG) versus mid-tier firms (Grant Thornton, BDO, RSM, Crowe) and smaller regional firms. Track concentration trends over time and segment by filer size category to understand how market concentration varies across the filer population. Regulators and policymakers use these analyses to inform audit market competition policy.
Identify companies that changed auditors by comparing auditor names across consecutive fiscal years. Measure the fee change associated with transitions — how much fees rise or fall when switching between Big Four and non-Big Four, or between Big Four firms. Researchers use these patterns to study opinion-shopping hypotheses and the competitive dynamics of auditor selection.
Track audit fee trajectories before and after major regulatory events — the initial SOX Section 404 internal control audit requirement (effective 2004), PCAOB Auditing Standard No. 5 (2007), and subsequent standard changes. Compare fee trends for affected filers against control groups (e.g., smaller reporting companies exempted from SOX 404(b)) to measure incremental regulatory cost. These analyses are central to cost-benefit evaluations of audit regulation.
Build predictive models using year-over-year audit fee changes, non-audit fee ratio shifts, and auditor changes as features to forecast restatements, material weaknesses, or going concern opinions. A sudden increase in audit fees may reflect the auditor expanding procedures in response to identified risks. Combined with financial and governance variables, fee-based features improve early-warning models for audit-related adverse events.
Use the dataset's 20+ year history to estimate audit fee models controlling for company size (total assets, revenue), complexity (number of subsidiaries, segments, foreign operations), risk (leverage, losses, litigation exposure), industry, and auditor identity. These models are foundational in academic audit research and have practical applications in fee negotiation, audit planning, and regulatory impact assessment.
Download the complete dataset archive containing all audit fee records from 2001 to the present:
https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/audit-fees.zip
The full archive contains more than 139,000 structured audit fee records covering over two decades of audit fee disclosures across more than 10,000 unique issuers.
The dataset is organized into container files in .jsonl.gz (gzip-compressed JSON Lines) format. Download individual containers using the pattern:
https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/audit-fees/{container-file-name}.jsonl.gz
Each container file holds audit fee records for a specific time period. Each line in the decompressed JSONL file is a standalone JSON object representing one company-year audit fee record.
Retrieve metadata about all available containers from the dataset index API:
https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/audit-fees.json
The index API returns a JSON object with dataset-level metadata and a list of all available container files with their download URLs, file sizes, record counts, and last-updated timestamps. Use this endpoint to identify which containers have been updated since your last download for incremental synchronization.
All download endpoints require authentication. Include your API key as a query parameter (?token=YOUR_API_KEY) with each download request. The Dataset Index JSON API does not require authentication.
The dataset is updated daily. New audit fee records extracted from recently filed DEF 14A documents are added to the bulk dataset each day between 10:30 PM and 11:30 PM ET.
The four categories are: (1) audit fees — for the annual audit and quarterly reviews, (2) audit-related fees — for assurance services related to but separate from the audit, (3) tax fees — for tax compliance, advice, and planning, and (4) all other fees — for any other permissible services. This four-category framework was established by SEC Release No. 33-8183 in January 2003, replacing an earlier two-category system.
The data is extracted from the "Principal Accountant Fees and Services" section of DEF 14A definitive proxy statements filed on EDGAR. This disclosure is required by Item 9(e) of Schedule 14A (17 CFR 240.14a-101).
No. Foreign private issuers disclose audit fees in Form 20-F annual reports, not in DEF 14A proxy statements. This dataset covers domestic registrants that file proxy statements.
No. Registered investment companies disclose audit fees in Form N-CSR, not in proxy statements. This dataset covers operating companies, REITs, BDCs, and other entities that file DEF 14A.
Coverage begins in 2001, reflecting the earliest proxy filings with itemized fee disclosures following the SEC's initial audit fee disclosure requirement adopted in Release No. 34-42266 (December 2000).
SEC rules require companies to disclose fees for the two most recent fiscal years in each proxy statement, creating a built-in year-over-year comparison. A single DEF 14A may therefore produce records for both fiscal years.
The non-audit fee ratio is the sum of audit-related fees, tax fees, and all other fees divided by total fees (or by audit fees alone, depending on the formulation). It is the standard quantitative metric for assessing auditor independence risk. Higher ratios suggest greater financial dependency of the auditor on non-audit revenue from the client, which may compromise audit objectivity.
Yes. The dataset is survivorship-bias-free. It includes fee disclosures from every registrant that has filed a DEF 14A with audit fee data, regardless of whether the company is currently publicly traded.
The dataset uses .jsonl.gz (gzip-compressed JSON Lines) format. Each line in the decompressed file is a standalone JSON object representing one company-year audit fee record. This format supports efficient streaming, line-by-line parsing, and integration into data pipelines.
Yes. By comparing the auditor name field across consecutive fiscal years for the same company (matched by CIK), you can detect auditor changes and measure the associated fee impact.