The Purpose Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act

This highly qualified reasersch paper explores published articles that report on results from research conducted on online (Internet) and offline (non-Internet) relationships and their relationship to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In 2002 the Sarbanes-Oxley Act passed by the U.S. Congress to protect shareholders and the general public from accounting errors and fraudulent practices in the enterprise, as well as improve the accuracy of corporate disclosures. With the research I have done I believe that with the act being accepted and pass made a big change for all organizations, large and small.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was a piece of legislation enacted by the United States Congress with the intent “to improve corporate governance and restore faith of investors” (Hanna, 2014). I have studied this act in my accounting courses, and the primary reason the act seems to have been implemented is due to the various accounting scandals involving major corporations at the time, such as Enron and WorldCom (Hanna, 2014). The United States economy was still recovering from the dot-com bubble that burst in the late 1990s (Hanna, 2014), and a mild recession that occurred during 2001. Thus, the major accounting scandals that were causing large corporations to fold further shook investor confidence. In my opinion, if it weren’t for this act, many investors would have abandoned the stock market permanently or at least restricted their investments to highly conservative blue chip companies, hindering the ability for other companies to raise capital for growth.

Financial reporting has been dissected over and over again by legislation. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hold the key to providing protection and integrity when companies are submitting their financial statements. Although their mission is to provide order and efficiency for financial markets, insidious plans are still developed by companies which ultimately result in turmoil to the economy. To provide a safeguard to investors, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was passed by congress in 2002, which was constructed because of fraudulent acts of well-known companies such as Enron. Before the SOX was inaugurated, two sets of accounting rules were used as guides for CPA firms.

Retailing is one of the largest industries in the United States and accounts for approximately 10 percent of the gross national product. A retailer is someone who purchases items from a supplier or wholesaler for re-sale at a profit. The retailer earns his or her living by making a profit on the re-sale. Retailers purchase a product, mark up its cost, and advertise it for sale. The mark-up process is the key to the retailers business because if the product is marked up too high, consumers will not buy it. If it is marked too low then the retailer will have lost profits and the supply may be quickly exhausted. Another key to the retail business is knowing what the customer needs or wants and when, how much the customer is willing to pay for the product, what the competition is charging, and where to find the product at the best possible cost to make a profit.

In response to the accounting scandals at Enron and Worldcom that caused huge losses to shareholders and spawned a crisis in investor confidence, the U.S. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002. Sarbanes Oxley specifies that publicly traded companies must protect whistleblowers from retaliation, or face large fines and legal actions. SOX protects whistleblowers from adverse employment actions, such as demoting, discharging, suspending, threatening, or harassing. The protection provided by SOX is critical so that individuals are encouraged to report unethical behavior by a company/business rather than being afraid of taking on a huge company.

The rules regarding auditing can be viewed as a double-edged sword. Firms have to cannot be audited by the same auditors after 5 years of being audited by any particular firm. (SARBANES-OXLEY , 2006)This is intended to have the auditing firms be more independent of the firm it is auditing. In addition, provisions have been put in place regarding when and how an individual who worked at an auditing firm could work at a firm at which they participated in an external audit. This can lead to a significant cost increase at some

Board members duty is to guard the best interest of an organization. There are three laws in place that a board member must follow. First, the duty of care involves the board member carry out their managements responsibilities and comply with the law in the best interests of the corporation. Next, the duty of good faith requires board members to be faithful to organization mission and values. Lastly, the duty of loyalty requires a board member must give undivided commitment when making decisions affecting the organization. The Sarbanes -Oxley act was passed in 2002 by the U.S. government to protect investors from accounting scandals and fraud. Furthermore, the Sarbanes Act requires public companies to establish a code of conduct for top executives.

In July 2002 the United States Congress passed a law, known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), as a set of standards for companies when reporting financial statements. The goal of the SOX is to protect investors from investing in companies that alter their financial statements to make it appear as though it was in good financial position when in reality it is not. The SOX states that auditors must ensure that the financial statements of a company are in no way misleading to potential investors.

A company discloses their financial reporting and other financial information with their shareholders, creditors, financial analysts, and employees. The creditability of a company’s financial information hinges on its internal control of effectively adhering to governing regulations. According to Epstein (2014) the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was established to eradicate companies from submitting fraudulent financial reporting. “The Sarbanes-Oxley Act changes management’s responsibility for financial reporting significantly. The act requires that top mangers personally certify the accuracy of financial reports” Blokhin (2018). This improves the quality of financial information being presented permitting decision makers the ability to have

Internal Controls are the policies and procedures used to safeguard assets, ensure accurate business information, and ensure compliance with laws and regulations. In the 2000’s, there were many businesses, stockholders, creditors and investors affected by scandals and fraud. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is extremely important to the laws affecting U.S businesses today; this is why there is such an emphasis on the importance of effective internal controls. The three internal control objectives can be achieved by applying the five elements of internal controls. The five elements are control environment, risk assessment, control procedures, monitoring and information communication. Each of the five elements performs a separate duty towards a business in order to ensure that the business is being protected. I’ve been employed at Target for nearly 2 years now and I witness and work with the internal controls of the business. Target is the second largest discount retailer in the United States and because of this they take internal controls very seriously. When any person comes in for an interview, your interviewer introduces you to them right away as a way to introduce you to the company.

In this paper, I will cover the characteristics of a whistleblower provide an example of one and cover how the Sarbanes-Oxley Act would be used in this particular event.

The Sarbanes-Oxley act was enacted in 2002 as a United States federal law that changed the regulations and procedures of management and public accounting firms, and all U.S. public company boards. The act was created in response to the major scandals in corporate and accounting corporations. Sarbanes-Oxley over the years has implemented new sections and regulations. The act specifically requires that the management of public companies assess the effectiveness of the internal controls to ensure that it will not affect financial reporting (Kravitz, 2012). Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act specifically requires “a publicly-held company’s auditor to attest to, and report on, management’s assessment of its internal controls”. (Kravitz, 2012) This has helped many publicly companies (especially small ones) to improve their financial reporting and transparency.

Throughout our academic studies, we have been taught what the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is and what it represents. However, professors have left behind the topic of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 and have focused mainly on teaching about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In this paper I will further explain both of these fundamental terms, some of the major provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Dodd-Frank, and the pros and cons for some of the provisions targeted by the legislation. To conclude, I will also state where I stand personally and professionally on these issues.

There is relatively little evidence on impact of internal control on mergers and acquisitions (M&A). This paper examine the relationship between internal control quality and M&A performance. Specially, this paper takes a look whether or not internal control impact differently on the performance of three types of M&A: horizontal mergers, vertical mergers and conglomerate mergers. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX), also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act and Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act, is a United States federal law that was pass setting forth a requirement that a large majority of publically traded firms had to periodically disclose information regarding their internal control environments.

One of the key provisions of the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 is Title VIII. This is designed to protect whistle blowers, who are reporting illegal activities inside their firms. The basic idea is that this will safeguard these individuals against any kind of retribution from their employers. This will encourage them to become more involved in reporting various discrepancies. Once this occurs, is when the public and regulators will stay informed about a host of events inside the organization.