Please help me answer my teachers comments, here is my post followed by her comm

Question

Please help me answer my teachers comments, here is my post followed by her comment. Thanks

Sarbanes oxley act is a fedral act, which was introduced to protect the interest of shareholders, employees and public from account ting error, fraudulent financial practices.

Importance of sox act for stockholders :-

Since sarbanes oxley act requires filing of various documents with sec and require CFO to ensure transparency and accuracy or those financial statements thus it ensures an enhanced level of transparency for stockholders and they can have more confidence in the financial statements of an organisations and accordingly they can invest their funds without any tensions

Following are the ramifications for accountants due to sox act :-

1. Establishment of public company accounting oversight board which will oversee and investigate audit and auditors of publicly traded co. And sanction them for violation of law

2. Now auditor will report to and be overseen by audit committee of company instead of management.

3. It prohibit auidtor from rendering certain non audit services to audit client

4. Accounting firm will not be able to provide audit service to public company if one of the top officials of the company eg. CEO & CFO and employed by the firm and worked on company's audit during the previous year

Ethical solution :- CEO & CFO of the company in its quarterly and annual report must certify that they have reviewed the report, report does not contain any untrue statement and that financial statements presents all material aspects of the company.

Her comment:

What are the ramifications to accountants if they fail to comply with SOX?

You said: "Ethical solution : CEO & CFO of the company in its quarterly and annual report must certify that they have reviewed the report, report does not contain any untrue statement and that financial statements presents all material aspects of the company." What is this an ethical solution to?

Explanation / Answer

If default is committed by accountant in complying with SOX Act , the following are the penalties which are made under law:

Fail to review /maintain workpapers- Accountant is penalised for upto 10 years if he wilfully fail to maintain the workpapers for at least 5 years. As per board instruction, auditors are required to document the workpapers for 7 years.

Destroying the documents- if documets are destroyed in federalor bankruptcy investigation , penalty of upto 20years shall be levied.

Securities Fraud- Penalty for securities fraud shall be levied for 25 years.

Fraud discovery- Penalty for discovery of fraud shall be levied for 2 years from the date of discovery and 5 years after the act.

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