After major corporate and accounting scandals such as those affecting Tyco, Worldcom, and Enron, the federal government passed a law known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, also known as corporate accounting reform public companies and Investor Protection Law. This law was passed in hopes of combating illegal and misleading acts by financial journalists and ending the decline of public confidence in accounting and reporting practices. Two important topics covered in Sarbanes-Oxley are auditor independence and reporting and evaluation of internal controls under Section 404. Sarbanes-Oxley contains eleven headings and covers a wide range of topics, from the implementation of new compliance requirements with criminal sanctions for any violations. of sentences. A very important aspect addressed in Sarbanes-Oxley is the independence of auditors. Auditor independence and the role an auditor plays in corporate financial reporting following all the corporate scandals have become extremely important. It has become increasingly important in an auditor's training and professional ethics. The objective of auditor independence is for the auditor “to be fair and impartial with respect to the financial statements and other information audited”0. There are three aspects of practical auditor independence, programming independence, investigative independence and reporting independence. Reporting independence is extremely important because it is the main objective of auditor independence, the prevention of any client influence on the outcome of what is to be reported. It is vital that an auditor feels no need to be fair or favorable in reporting to the client. The auditor's obligation is to report... middle of paper... favorably, eliminating an auditor's ability to benefit from the way he or she reports on the client's financial statement. While section 404 takes an internal approach to ensure that management is doing everything possible to establish effective means of internal controls by reporting on them. Works Cited Maintaining Auditor Independence The Edge, November 11, 2002 http://www.pwc.com/extweb /indissue.nsf/DocID/607E8C1B96B9DC31CA256C6F002C846F#4Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002http://fl1.findlaw.com/news.findlaw. com/hdocs/docs/gwbush/sarbanesoxley072302.pdfhttp://www.Sarbanes-oxley.comRamos, Michael Section 404 Compliance in Annual Report October 2004 http://www.aicpa.org/pubs/jofa/oct2004/ramos. htm Robertson, Jack C and Louwers, Timothy J.Auditing & Assurance Services, 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.