Benefits and Costs of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(B) Exemption: Evidence from Small Firms’ Internal Control Disclosures

71 Pages Posted: 7 Mar 2014 Last revised: 13 Aug 2023

See all articles by Weili Ge

Weili Ge

University of Washington - Michael G. Foster School of Business

Allison Koester

Georgetown University - McDonough School of Business; Georgetown University - Department of Accounting and Business Law

Sarah E. McVay

University of Washington

Date Written: January 4, 2017

Abstract

Thousands of publicly traded U.S. firms are exempt from auditor oversight of internal control effectiveness disclosures (Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002). We provide initial estimates of the measurable benefits and costs of this exemption. We measure the benefit of exemption with audit fee savings, which we estimate to be an aggregate $388 million from 2007 through 2014 for our sample of exempt firms. The key concern of exemption is internal control misreporting (IC misreporting; i.e., firms with ineffective internal controls erroneously disclosing effective internal controls). We estimate that 9.3 percent of exempt firms are IC misreporters, and that 404(b) compliance would lower this IC misreporting to 5.8 percent. IC misreporting imposes at least two measurable costs on current and prospective shareholders: lower operating performance due to non-remediation, and market values that fail to reflect a firm’s underlying internal control status. We calculate the cost of 404(b) exemption from 2007 through 2014 to be an aggregate $719 million in lower future earnings due to non-remediation, and a $935 million delay in aggregate market value decline due to the failure to disclose ineffective internal controls. Although the measurable costs of exemption exceed the measurable benefits, the audit fee savings benefit shareholders of all exempt firms, whereas costs are borne by shareholders of only a fraction of exempt firms (the IC misreporters). In addition to providing initial evidence on measurable benefits and costs of internal control disclosure regulation, our study provides a tool for identifying the firms most at risk of inaccurately disclosing internal control effectiveness.

Keywords: internal controls over financial reporting; disclosure accuracy; non-accelerated filers; Section 404

Suggested Citation

Ge, Weili and Koester, Allison and McVay, Sarah E., Benefits and Costs of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404(B) Exemption: Evidence from Small Firms’ Internal Control Disclosures (January 4, 2017). Journal of Accounting & Economics (JAE), Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2405187 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2405187

Weili Ge

University of Washington - Michael G. Foster School of Business ( email )

Box 353200
Seattle, WA 98195-3200
United States

Allison Koester (Contact Author)

Georgetown University - McDonough School of Business ( email )

3700 O Street, NW
Washington, DC 20057
United States
202.687.6461 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/apk29/

Georgetown University - Department of Accounting and Business Law ( email )

McDonough School of Business
Washington, DC 20057
United States

Sarah E. McVay

University of Washington ( email )

224 Mackenzie Hall, Box 353200
Seattle, WA 98195-3200
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://foster.uw.edu/faculty-research/directory/sarah-mcvay/

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