PCAOB Adopts New Standard For Auditor's Reports

On June 1, 2017, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) adopted a new standard for auditor's reports that requires a description of "critical audit matters," for purposes of providing investors with information regarding the most challenging, subjective or complex aspects of the audit. Under the new standard, critical audit matters are defined as any matter arising from the current period's audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved especially challenging, subjective or complex auditor judgment. If no critical audit matters arose from the audit, the auditor's report must state that there were no critical audit matters. The communication of each critical audit matter in the auditor's report must include: (a) the identification of the critical audit matter; (b) a description of the