More SOX delays for some firms.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) appears to be bending over backwards to help small businesses and foreign firms comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX).

In the four years since the act was passed, many small (those with less than $75 million market value), public U.S. companies and foreign companies listing on U.S. stock exchanges have complained that complying with SOX 404 requirements to document and test their internal financial control procedures is too time-consuming and costly. And their complaints have not fallen on deaf ears; the SEC has given small and foreign businesses several extensions to Section 404 compliance deadlines.

Although in May, the SEC nixed demands to exempt small companies from complying with Section 404, in August, it extended their deadline for compliance with its management assessment of internal controls provision to December 15, 2007. This six-month extension effectively gives companies whose fiscal year-end falls between July 15 and December 30, 2007, a one-year extension to file their first management report on internal controls. The SEC also gave these companies an extra year to include the required auditor's report on internal controls in their annual report; it must appear in the first annual report for fiscal years ending after December 15, 2008.

The new deadlines apply to a surprisingly large amount of public firms. According to the SEC, 44 percent of all registered public companies in the United...