[JURIST] The US Securities and Exchange Commission [official website] on Wednesday introduced plans to give small public US companies and some foreign companies [SEC releases, PDF] additional time to comply [press release] with restrictive internal control requirements relating to financial reporting. The requirements were adopted by Congress in 2002 as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act [PDF text; SEC materials] in an effort to protect investors, and gave companies until fiscal years ending on or after July 15, 2007 to implement internal controls to ensure accurate financial reporting and to seek confirmation of the controls by an external auditor, but the new requirements would extend the deadline [JURIST report] until December 15, 2007 for small companies. Under the plan, the deadline for firms' outside auditors to evaluate the internal controls will also be extended until December 15, 2008. For foreign firms, the SEC plan would extend the deadline for internal control requirements until July 15, 2007.

In May, the SEC announced that all publicly traded firms, including small and mid-size firms, would be subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act [press release; JURIST report], despite complaints from small companies that the rules would be prohibitively expensive. The rules have prompted many small businesses to go private [JURIST report] in order to avoid the costs of compliance, according to a report [PDF text] from the Government Accountability Office. Dow Jones News has more.