Securities and Exchange Commission 2006 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

We are extending further for smaller public companies the dates that were published on September 29, 2005, in Release No. 33-8618 [70 FR 56825], for their compliance with the internal control reporting requirements mandated by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Under the extension, a non-accelerated filer is not required to provide management's report on internal control over financial reporting until it files an annual report for its first fiscal year ending on or after December 15, 2007. If we have not issued additional guidance for management on how to complete its assessment of internal control over financial reporting in time to be of sufficient assistance in connection with annual reports filed for fiscal years ending on or after December 15, 2007, we will consider whether we should further postpone this date. A non-accelerated filer is not required to file the auditor's attestation report on internal control over financial reporting until it files an annual report for its first fiscal year ending on or after December 15, 2008. We will consider further postponing this date after we consider the anticipated revisions to Auditing Standard No. 2. Management's report included in a non-accelerated filer's annual report during the filer's first year of compliance with the Section 404(a) requirements will be deemed ``furnished'' rather than filed. Management's report for foreign private issuers filing on Form 20-F or 40-F that are accelerated filers (but not large accelerated filers) also will be deemed furnished rather than filed for the year that such issuers are only required to provide management's report. Companies that only provide management's report during their first year of compliance in accordance with our rules must state in the annual report that the report does not include the auditor's attestation report and that the company's registered public accounting firm has not attested to management's report on the company's internal control over financial reporting. We also are adopting amendments that provide for a transition period for a newly public company before it becomes subject to the internal control over financial reporting requirements. Under the new amendments, a company will not become subject to these requirements until it either had been required to file an annual report for the prior fiscal year with the Commission or had filed an annual report with the Commission for the prior fiscal year. A newly public company is required to include a statement in its first annual report that the annual report does not include either management's assessment on the company's internal control over financial reporting or the auditor's attestation report.