The Securities and Exchange Commission announced on October 2 a six-month extension of the date on which non-accelerated filers must begin to comply with the auditor attestation requirement under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. A non-accelerated filer must now provide an auditor attestation to the effectiveness of the filer's internal controls in its SEC annual report for the year ending on or after June 15, 2010. A "non-accelerated filer" is a company that did not have a public float of at least $75 million on the last business day of its most recently completed second fiscal quarter. New public companies are not required to include the auditor attestation report in their initial SEC annual report.
Although this is the sixth delay in requiring non-accelerated filers to comply with Section 404(b), SEC Chairman Mary L. Schapiro indicated in the press release that "there will be no further Commission extensions."
View SEC press release announcing the six-month deferral. You can find additional information on Section 404(b) on our website.
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