PCAOB Reproposes Enhanced Auditor Reporting Standard

On May 11, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board unanimously agreed to repropose a revised auditing standard governing the contents and form of the audit report delivered by registered public accounting firms in their audits of public company financial statements. According to the PCAOB, the new standard "seeks to enhance the form and content of the report to make it more relevant and informative to investors and other financial statement users." The reproposal is the latest development in a process dating back to a 2008 recommendation by the Department of the Treasury's Advisory Committee on the Auditing Profession. Following the 2008 recommendation, the PCAOB issued a concept release in June 2011, which was followed by a proposed standard in August 2013. (See our prior post from August 2013 for a description of the 2013 proposal.) The reproposed standard is contained in a more than 200-page release and is summarized in a shorter fact sheet.