Audit Plan to Flag Illegal Acts Needs Do-Over, Critics Charge

Critics of a draft rule requiring auditors to dig deeper into possible corporate lawbreaking urged the US accounting oversight board to scale back the controversial project before issuing a fresh proposal.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board re-opened the comment period under pressure from critics of its 2023 proposal that would overhaul the regulator’s illegal acts standard. Accounting firms, companies, and corporate directors are among those who consider the draft standard a costly expansion of the financial statement audit.

Stakeholders submitted 38 additional comment letters as of their March 18 due date. Many of them called on the PCAOB to ...