Signed into law 15 years ago, on July 30, 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) transformed the public accounting arena in significant ways. From mandatory internal controls testing to regular inspections from the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, SOX introduced changes that today are seen as the standard features of any worthwhile audit. But now, a decade and a half later, lawmakers and business leaders have questioned the legacy of these changes and, indeed, are seeking to roll some of them back. 

Major accounting firms have been moving away from traditional tax and audit services and into consulting and advisory services to boost earnings. In recent years, consulting has become a significant source of revenue for some firms. For Steven B. Harris, a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), a well-documented shift from audit services toward consulting services for revenue raises concerns about auditor independence. 

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is calling for federal legislation that would allow the U.S. Secretary of Labor to establish standards for employee benefit plan (EBP) audits, as well as require additional education for the CPAs who perform them. The call comes after a recent agency study found that 39 percent of EBP audits contained major deficiencies. The study, issued in May, examined 400 of the 81,162 EBP audits filed by approximately 7,300 firms in 2011. Audits were categorized by the size of a firm’s employee benefit plan audit practice, which the DOL pointed out was not necessarily reflective of the size of the firm overall.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) is moving forward with its plan to  reorganize and codify its existing auditing standards into a format that it hopes will be easier to navigate. The board first proposed the changes—which do not alter the standards themselves or impose new requirements on auditors—in a 2013 exposure draft. It approved the reorganization during an open meeting on March 31.

Accountants who specialize in tax and general accounting services are often asked by their clients to perform audits of employee benefit plans (EBP), such as 401(k) and health and welfare plans. But if you don’t routinely conduct EBP audits, you may not be aware of their unique characteristics, such as testing demographic data, hardship withdrawals and remitting employee contributions on a timely basis.