It now looks like the SEC is willing to reconsider their decision not to extend the deadline for small public firm compliance with section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Office of Advocacy of the SBA wrote to the commissioners in the wake of the SEC's decision not to grant postponement of deadlines for public firms with less than $75 million in market value. You can read the contents of the Office of Advocacy's letter here.
Keep in mind that this is merely an attempt to postpone the deadline. At some point compliance will probably be required of all public companies -- even the small ones. The estimated $500,000 in compliance costs per year is unfathomable for many of these smaller firms. And even worse is the fact that these rules will creep into the accounting standards for non-public firms, as well.
