The most popular and comprehensive Open Source ECM platform
Let us know more
Compliance: Another Day, another delay
It isn’t a secret that small businesses hate Sarbanes-Oxley. Their screams have been loud, and once again they’ve been heard. Yesterday, the US Securities and Exchange commission delayed yet again the deadline for small companies to become compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley. The deadline has been postponed for small companies with a market capitalization of less that $75 million for another year. This is the fifth time that the deadline has been delayed. Companies will have until December 15th, 2009.
In a press release, the SEC said “the extension of the Section 404(b) compliance date for smaller companies is the latest in a series of Commission efforts to help reduce unnecessary compliance costs for smaller companies while preserving important investor protections”.
But investor advocates complained [FinancialWeek]. “The SEC should be cracking the whip, not enabling this reckless disregard for investor protection and market transparency,” said Barbara Roper, the Consumer Federation of America’s director of investor protection. “Small public companies still do not have basic protections in place designed to ensure that their financial statements are accurate.”
Simultaneous to the announcement of the delay is the announcement that the SEC has won additional funding to study the costs, impacts and benefits of Sarbanes-Oxley section 404. The SEC has been estimating the the first year’s cost of Sarbanes-Oxley complaince for the first year should average $91,000, but many companies dispute that figure.
