Compliance to Begin June 15, 2010 On Friday, October 2, 2009, the SEC announced an extension for small public companies to comply with Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Companies with a market cap of less than $75M (“non-accelerated filers”) and their independent auditors will need to report on the effectiveness of their internal controls beginning on or after June of 2010.
The requirement for compliance with Section 404(b) will now be effective beginning with the annual reports of companies with fiscal years ending on or after June 15, 2010. This delay means that non-accelerated filers with fiscal years ending on or after December 15, 2009 through June 14, 2010 will have an additional year before they need to include the auditors’ attestation report on internal controls in their annual report on Form 10-K.