A modification of the audit report with altered wording may include an unqualified opinion. Which option best captures this?

• A. It can never include an unqualified opinion.
• B. It may include an unqualified opinion.
• C. It always requires a modified opinion.
• D. It implies an independence issue.

Answer: (B)

In auditing, you can change the wording of the report to emphasize a matter or to include other explanatory information, and you can still issue an unqualified opinion if the financial statements are presented fairly in all material respects. The idea is that the report’s language can call attention to something—through an emphasis-of-matter or other-matter paragraph—without saying the statements are not fairly presented. So, it's possible for the report to be modified in wording yet still express an unqualified opinion.

Why the other options don’t fit: a report that is modified in wording does not automatically mean the opinion is unqualified forever or that independence is the issue; it can be an unqualified opinion with the added emphasis or explanatory paragraph. Conversely, a strictly modified opinion would be used only when the statements themselves are not fairly presented, not merely when wording is altered.