Advisors to the Securities and Exchange Commission have recommended regulators lighten up on smaller public companies by delaying internal control reporting requirements, and by scrapping or postponing accelerating filing deadlines. At the same time, the advisory group is working on a new definition for “smaller” that, if ultimately adopted, would cast a much larger net on who would qualify for small-company treatment.
SEC’s Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies met in Chicago for two days last week to compare notes and hammer out their recommendations. At the end of the session, the Committee handed the SEC a two-page resolution recommending a one-year delay on the effective date of internal control reporting requirements for non-accelerated filers. That would give smaller companies until their first fiscal year ending on or after July 15, 2007, to comply with Section 404 of Sarbanes-Oxley.
