Financial Statements Staleness
There are four main financial statements:
Balance sheets;
Income statements;
Cash flow statements; and
Statements of shareholders’ equity.
Financial statements are considered stale when they are too old to be used in a filing such as a registration statement or periodic filings such as 10-K, 10-Q, proxy and others required by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Per Regulation C, Rule 417, if the staleness date falls on a holiday or weekend, then the staleness date is extended to the next business day, see SEC Financial Reporting Manual . The age of financial statements is based on the effective date of the filing. The SEC Staff has a policy against commencing review of a filing if the financial statements are stale on the filing date.
The statelessness date for companies with December 31 as fiscal year end looking to do an Initial Public Offering (IPO), the year end financials become stale 135 days after year end. For example a company with December 31, 2022 as fiscal year end should make sure it is registered with the SEC by May 15th (134 days subsequent to December 31 is May 14th and since May 14th falls on a weekend the staleness date is extended to May 15th) - refer to "What is the 135 days rule ?" below.
For companies which are already public, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has divided these into the following filing statuses based on their market cap and reporting history. These companies are subject to periodic reporting requirements and must file annual, quarterly and other current reports with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The financial statement staleness dates of each vary based on their filing status.
Large accelerated filers
Accelerated filers
Non-accelerated filers
Smaller reporting companies
When does a company become a Reporting Entity: A company becomes a ‘Reporting Company’ when it has a class of securities registered with the
"What is the 135 days rule ?" Under the 135 day rule an auditor cannot give negative assurance for 135 days or more since the last balance sheet date for which the auditor has performed an audit or review. Under the 135-day rule negative assurance is available up to and including the 134th day. Since the type of comfort that auditors would be willing to provide will be limited henceafter, it is important for companies to pay particular attention to the financial reporting cycle and factor this in with the deal timeline. Most underwriters will often be unwilling to proceed with the deal if they do not receive negative assurance.
About The Author
Arushi Bhandari is an MBA and a licensed CPA in the state of California. She has helped several Silicon Valley startups at different stages with their accounting, going public and tax related issues. Her publications eBooks - STARTUP Financing, Equity and Tax and Introduction to Equity Compensation are available on Apple iBookstore, Amazon Kindle and Google Play. She maintains a public blog at www.startuptaxaccounting.com and has guest blogged at different startup platforms such as The Startup Garage and Belmont Acquisitions.
DISCLAIMER: The information provided is intended to educate the readers and a more definite answer should be based on a consultation with a lawyer or CPA. It should not be relied upon as legal advice because the information might be incomplete and answers could change depending upon circumstances and if all facts were known.

















