SOX and 'Garnishments'? 1114



  • A friend of mine who is a payroll accountant has been told by a couple of recruiters that she needs to ‘get up to snuff on garnishments as they relate to SOX’. But, they could not give her any more information on exactly what they mean - just that they have had clients who are looking for that.
    Anybody have a clue what this is all about?



  • I’m not a recruiter so I can’t answer but am quizical to how that may relate?
    I understand garnishment is ‘money being held back’ yet the Sarbanes Oxley relates to retention and compliance. Hmmm…
    Perhaps, there is some existing relation for garnishment compliance???
    I’ll check back to find out the answer. As I am curious.



  • It seems that everything seems to have a SOX link, doesn’t it?
    The only relationship that I can see here is that a company required to garnish wages of it’s employees would incur a liability for the garnishment amounts until the amount is paid over to the garnishing authority. The only financial statement risk I see here is understatement of the liability if amounts are not properly withheld. An immaterial risk for most companies.
    Garnishment controls in and of themselves are more compliance controls which are outside the scope of SOX.
    My opinion on recruiters is that they rarely know much about the positions that they are trying to fill or the requirements and skillsets to fill those positions unless the hiring company provides that information to them. SOX is a big topic in the accounting and IT world but is too often used way out of context.



  • My opinion on recruiters is that they rarely know much about the positions that they are trying to fill or the requirements and skillsets to fill those positions unless the hiring company provides that information to them. SOX is a big topic in the accounting and IT world but is too often used way out of context.
    Too true



  • Denis - I know that you are a regular contributor to this forum and I appreciate your thoughts and comments.
    I am currently in the UK (Woking) finalizing a review of one of our interantional subsidiaries for 2005.
    Whereabouts are you located in the UK? Do you work for a subsidiary of a US filer or are you involved just on the consulting side of the business?
    As we work through this, we are all still learning. It is good that we can share our learnings with each other. I just wish that we had a larger participation in this forum.
    Cheers.



  • Believe it or not I live in Woking - but work for a (very) large UK-based multi-national.
    eMail me if you fancy catching up for a beer or something.



  • I appreciate the offer. I will probably need to catch up next visit as we will be in the office late tonight to wrap up our closing presentation to the local management team scheduled for tomorrow AM and then we are off to Heathrow.


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