There may be a silver lining for some smaller companies who’ve been hammered by the market downturn. Issuers who have seen their public float clobbered in recent months may not be required to file the auditor attestation on internal control over financial reporting with their 2008 annual reports if they’re no longer accelerated filers.

In an alert to its members, the Center for Audit Quality notes that issuers that exit accelerated filer status and become non-accelerated filers aren’t required to comply with Section 404(b) for a fiscal year ending before Dec. 15, 2009.

For example, a calendar year-end SEC registrant that was an accelerated filer for its fiscal year ended Dec. 31, 2007, but that will qualify as a non-accelerated filer for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 2008, because its public float dropped below $50 million as of the last business day of its second fiscal quarter (June 30, 2008), isn’t required to comply with Section 404(b) in its 2008 Form 10-K. However, the company still has to comply with Section 404(a).

The alert cites a Sept. 26, 2006, CAQ SEC Regulations Committee discussion document that documents the SEC staff’s response during a meeting with the committee. An SEC spokesman confirmed that the discussion document represents the staff position.