How is SOX affecting small businesses?

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: News, Trends & Analysis - Sarbanes-Oxley Act - Brief Article

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman William H. Donaldson recently announced the creation of an advisory committee to examine the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other federal securities laws on smaller public companies.

The advisory committee will be known as the SEC Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies. It will be charged with considering the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in each of the following areas:

* frameworks for internal control over financial reporting applicable to smaller public companies, methods for management's assessment of such internal control, and standards for auditing such internal control

* corporate disclosure and reporting requirements and federally imposed corporate governance requirements for smaller public companies, including differing regulatory requirements based on market capitalization, other measurements of size or market characteristics; accounting standards and...