SEC concept release on internal control reporting
12 Jul 2006
The Securities and Exchange Commission, in another step toward improving the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley investor protection law, today published a Concept Release as a prelude to its forthcoming guidance for management in assessing a company's internal controls for financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The Commission anticipates that the forthcoming guidance for management will cover at least these areas: Identifying risks to financial statement account and disclosure accuracy and the related internal controls that address the risks, including how management might use company-level controls to address the risks Objectives of the evaluation procedures and methods or approaches available to management to gather evidence to support its assessment Factors management should consider to determine the nature, timing, and extent of its evaluation procedures Documentation requirements, including overall objectives of the documentation and factors that might influence documentation requirements The Concept Release seeks feedback on each of these topics and on whether guidance should be provided in other areas as well.
Effective dates of Section 404 for: | Fiscal years ending on or after: |
US domestic reporting companies that are accelerated filers | 15 November 2004 |
Foreign private issuers that are accelerated filers | 15 July 2006 |
Domestic and foreign non-accelerated filers | 15 July 2007 |