SEC extends compliance deadlines regarding internal control; PCAOB approves audit standard for internal control.The Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov) in Feb. extended the compliance dates for its rules regarding Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act See SOX. . These rules require a company to include in annual reports a report by management on the company's internal control over financial reporting and the accompanying auditor's report Auditor's Report Recorded in the annual report, the auditor's report tests to see that a corporation's financial statements comply with GAAP. This is sometimes referred to as the clean opinion. Notes: Most auditor's reports consist of three paragraphs. . Under the new compliance schedule, a company that is an "accelerated filer" as defined in Exchange Act Rule 12b-2 (generally, a U.S. company that has equity market capitalization Equity Market Capitalization A measure of the total market value of an equity market. The measure is calculated by taking the market capitalization of all companies in the equity market and adding them together to arrive at the capitalization for the market as a whole. over $75 million and has filed at least one annual report with the commission), must begin to comply with these amendments for its first fiscal year ending on or after Nov. 15, 2004 (originally June 15, 2004). A non-accelerated filer must begin to comply with these requirements for its first fiscal year ending on or after July 15, 2005 (originally Apr. 15, 2005). The commission similarly has extended the compliance date for related requirements regarding evaluation of internal control over financial reporting and management certification requirements, including certification and related requirements applicable to registered investment companies. Refer to Release No. 33-8392 for more information. On Mar. 9, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (or PCAOB) (sometimes called "Peekaboo") is a private-sector, non-profit corporation created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a 2002 United States federal law, to oversee the auditors of public companies. approved an auditing standard for audits of internal control over financial reporting and proposed amendments to the board's existing interim auditing standards to conform them to the new standard. The rule has been submitted to the SEC for approval; PCAOB PCAOB Public Company Accounting Oversight Board rules do not take effect unless approved by the SEC. For the full text of the rule and related appendices ap·pen·di·ces n. A plural of appendix. , go to: www.pcaobus.org/rules/Release-20040308-2.pdf |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion