Witt Mares

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Public Companies

Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 Compliance
While the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 aimed to restore confidence in financial reporting and strengthen corporate accountability and governance, it also placed a major burden on public companies. We welcome the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to help you increase your profitability and meet your regulatory requirements as directed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

Section 404 of the Act focuses unprecedented attention on an organization’s internal controls, requiring disclosures and extensive reporting. We can work efficiently with your company’s management team and internal and external auditors to provide you with the confidence that your internal controls are properly documented and tested, and that management’s assertions are strongly supported. Witt Mares can help you achieve the autonomy and independence you need from your certified public accountant.

Services

As leaders in our profession, we currently provide a variety of audit, tax and business advisory services to publicly held companies. The following services describe the types of work we offer to public companies for which we are not their independent auditors:

• Preparation of various components of consolidated corporate and partnership federal income tax returns, including REITs
• Preparation of audit workpapers
• Due diligence on acquisitions
• Internal audit projects*
• Preparation of foreign tax disclosures, primarily Forms 5471 to report foreign investments by U.S. corporations
• Section 404 consulting*
• Employee benefit plan audits
• Audits of financial institutions
• Budget and cash flow assistance*
• Systems integration assistance*
• Federal and state tax compliance for executives*
• Financial planning and stock option analysis for executives*
• Special projects upon request

For more information on the services listed above, please contact Jackie H. White, CPA.

*Service available for companies for which we do not serve as the external auditors.

 

Professional Affiliations

Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
Witt Mares is registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and is actively involved in the changes taking place that affect public companies. In fact, one of the firm’s partners was appointed to the AICPA task force drafting the AICPA’s comment letter for the PCAOB’s proposed rulemaking on independence and tax services/contingent fees. In addition, the firm recently completed its first PCAOB inspection. The PCAOB’s review of our engagements did not identify any audit performance issues. Our report can be viewed at www.pcaob.org.

With our direct involvement with the PCAOB, Witt Mares possesses the unique qualifications to handle problems you may encounter as a public company dealing with the repercussions of Sarbanes-Oxley. The new requirements of the PCAOB make the old standards new again. To protect the public interest, Sarbanes-Oxley mandates strong internal control through testing by management and your auditors, concepts that were the rule before the advent of risk-based auditing techniques.

What better team to guide you through this “return to old standards” than one with a management group possessing over 75 years of combined experience in the industry. Our team understands the past and current regulatory environment from your standpoint, as well as from the perspective of auditors and regulators.

Center for Audit Quality
Witt Mares is a member of the AICPA’s Center Audit Quality, a voluntary membership organization for firms who audit public companies. The purpose of the Center is to “foster confidence in the audit process and to aid investors and the capital markets by advancing constructive suggestions for change rooted in the profession’s core values of integrity, objectivity, honesty and trust.” To learn more about this organization, visit them online.