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Sarbanes Oxley
Act |
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TITLE IIAUDITOR INDEPENDENCE
SEC. 201. SERVICES OUTSIDE THE SCOPE OF
PRACTICE OF AUDITORS.
(a) PROHIBITED
ACTIVITIES.Section 10A of the
Securities
Exchange Act
of 1934 (15 U.S.C. 78j1) is amended by adding
at the end
the following:
(g) PROHIBITED
ACTIVITIES.Except as provided in
subsection
(h), it shall
be unlawful for a registered public accounting
firm
(and any
associated person of that firm, to the extent
determined
appropriate
by the Commission) that performs for any
issuer any
audit
required by this title or the rules of the
Commission under
this title
or, beginning 180 days after the date of
commencement
of the
operations of the Public Company Accounting
Oversight
Board
established under section 101 of the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act
of 2002 (in
this section referred to as the Board), the
rules of
the Board, to
provide to that issuer, contemporaneously with
the
audit, any
non-audit service, including
(1)
bookkeeping or other services related to the
accounting
records or
financial statements of the audit client;
(2)
financial information systems design and
implementation;
(3)
appraisal or valuation services, fairness
opinions, or
contribution-in-kind reports;
(4)
actuarial services;
(5)
internal audit outsourcing services;
(6)
management functions or human resources;
(7) broker
or dealer, investment adviser, or investment
banking
services;
(8) legal
services and expert services unrelated to the
audit; and
(9) any
other service that the Board determines, by
regulation,
is
impermissible.
(h) PREAPPROVAL REQUIRED FOR NON-AUDIT
SERVICES.
A registered
public accounting firm may engage in any
non-audit service,
including tax
services, that is not described in any of
paragraphs
(1) through
(9) of subsection (g) for an audit client,
only if the
activity is
approved in advance by the audit committee of
the
issuer, in
accordance with subsection (i)..
(b) EXEMPTION
AUTHORITY.The Board may, on a case
by
case basis,
exempt any person, issuer, public accounting
firm, or
transaction
from the prohibition on the provision of
services under
section
10A(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
(as added
by this
section), to the extent that such exemption is
necessary
or
appropriate in the public interest and is
consistent with the
protection of
investors, and subject to review by the
Commission
in the same
manner as for rules of the Board under section
107.
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