The Federal Council is having it examined whether there is a need for action in revision law.

The Federal Council has taken note of a report by external experts on audit and audit supervision law. From this, no fundamental need for action is apparent, yet the Federal Council has decided to further examine certain aspects.

The expert report, which was prepared externally, confirms that there is currently no fundamental need for action in the audit and audit supervision law. Furthermore, the existing law is considered sufficient by the general public. Having taken note of this report, the Federal Council has decided to have certain examination recommendations by the experts reviewed in more detail. This task will be undertaken by the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP) together with other federal agencies. Specifically, there are seven aspects to be examined in depth:

1. the extent to which the auditing company must examine the register of cooperators
2. whether, in the case of publicly traded companies where the audit company currently only needs to check the presence of an internal control system (ICS), the effectiveness of the ICS should also be examined by the audit company in the future. Furthermore, it should be investigated whether the requirement to assess the presence of an ICS should be abolished for other companies subject to ordinary audit
3. the linking of the obligation for cooperatives to prepare financial statements according to recognized standards to the number of members in the cooperative
4. what exactly is encompassed by the definition of "public interest entity" and its application to collective investment schemes
5. the threshold value according to the Audit Supervision Act (ASA), which limits the fees of the auditor per audited company
6. the penal provision according to Article 40(1) lit. a of the ASA
7. whether the Swiss Federal Audit Oversight Authority should continue to be the sole authority responsible for the licensing and supervision of an auditing company that audits a pension fund, or whether a solution comparable to that in AHV (Swiss old age and survivors' insurance) would be desirable.

Should the examination show that an adjustment of the current law is indicated, this could be incorporated into future modifications. Further information can be found here.

Findea helps you keep your taxes simple and hassle-free.