SEC Approves 2014 PCAOB Budget and Accounting Support Fee

Washington D.C., Feb. 14, 2014 —

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted February 5 to approve the 2014 budget of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and related annual accounting support fee, as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

The PCAOB budget totals $258.4 million and will be funded primarily by the collection of an accounting support fee totaling $252 million. 

The PCAOB oversees the audits and auditors of financial statements filed by public companies and registered broker-dealers.  The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which established the PCAOB, provides the Commission with oversight responsibility over the PCAOB.  The Sarbanes-Oxley Act specifies that the PCAOB’s budget be subject to approval by the Commission and requires the PCAOB to establish, with the approval of the Commission, a reasonable accounting support fee to fund the PCAOB’s operations.  Consideration of the PCAOB budget and the accounting support fee are two ways in which the Commission exercises its oversight responsibilities of the PCAOB.

The PCAOB approved its 2014 budget and accounting support fee at an open meeting in November 2013.  That budget, now also approved by the SEC, includes:

• A 2014 budget of $258.4 million
• A 2014 accounting support fee totaling $252 million allocated as follows:
  • $225.4 million to be assessed on public companies
  • $26.6 million to be assessed on broker-dealers

The PCAOB’s 2014 budget represents an increase of approximately 5 percent over its 2013 budget of $245.6 million.  The 2014 accounting support fee of $252 million is approximately 8 percent higher than the 2013 accounting support fee of $234 million.