News that the Securities and Exchange Commission will probably give smaller companies yet another extension on the auditor’s attestation requirement of Sarbanes-Oxley has certainly set much of Corporate America abuzz—but don’t expect it to change all that much, experts say.
A delay would give issuers with less than $75 million in market capitalization more time to get their internal controls in order and provide a welcome break on audit fees for another year. Other than that, experts say a one-year delay is unlikely to change the plans of most issuers; either they’re well along in their Section 404 compliance efforts and will press on, or have been procrastinating since the start and will keep on doing so.
