The Securities and Exchange Commission has published a technical amendment extending the effectiveness of the temporary rules that implemented the extension currently in effect for non-accelerated filers on compliance with the auditor attestation requirement under Section 404(b) of Sarbanes-Oxley.

Smaller companies shouldn't get too excited: The correction does not change the date by which a non-accelerated filer must begin to comply with the auditor attestation requirement.

The technical correction makes clear that the two temporary rules, Rule 2-02T in Regulation S-X and Item 308T in Reg. S-K, which implemented the 404(b) extension, remain in effect through June 30, 2010. Without the technical correction, the temporary rules that extended compliance until 2010 would have expired next month, an SEC spokesman clarified.

Non-accelerated filers are slated to comply with Section 404(b) for fiscal years ending on or after Dec. 15, 2009. Those companies have been awaiting the results of the SEC's cost-benefit study on SOX—one of the main reasons the SEC delayed compliance for those issuers last year. The SEC has said the findings of that study will inform any future action on SOX implementation, leaving some to hold out hope that the Commission may again delay 404(b) compliance for non-accelerated filers. However, recent remarks by some SEC officials hint that there's not much support for a delay.