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Item 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

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Item 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

We maintain "disclosure controls and procedures," as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our Exchange Act reports is (i) recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and (ii) accumulated and communicated to Autodesk management, including our Co-Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. We conducted an evaluation, under the supervision and with the participation of our Co-Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Based upon this evaluation, our Co-Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officer have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective as of January 31, 2017 for reasons described below.

We have performed additional analyses and other procedures to enable management to conclude that, notwithstanding the existence of the material weakness described above, the consolidated financial statements included in this Form 10-K present fairly, in all material respects, our financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the periods presented in conformity with GAAP. Additionally, corrective actions continue to address the internal control material weakness as described below under the section "Remediation Efforts with Respect to Material Weakness".

Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended). Our management assessed the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of January 31, 2017. In making this assessment, our management used the criteria set forth by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (“COSO”) in the 2013 Internal Control—Integrated Framework. Our management, including our Co-Chief Executive Officers and Chief Financial Officer, does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal control over financial reporting will necessarily prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within Autodesk have been detected.

Our management has concluded that, as of January 31, 2017, our internal control over financial reporting was not effective to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles due to the material weakness discussed in further detail below. Our independent registered public accounting firm, Ernst & Young, LLP, has issued an audit report on our internal control over financial reporting, which is included in Item 8 herein.

In connection with the preparation of our Consolidated Financial Statements for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2017, our management concluded that it has a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting related to the operating effectiveness of our controls over the calculation of income tax expense. A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

Remediation Efforts with Respect to Material Weakness

Management first identified a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting in connection with the preparation of our Condensed Consolidated financial statements for the fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2015. Since that time, management’s remediation activities have included the following:

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2017 Form 10-K 106

•enhanced our technical accounting review for complex income tax considerations;
•enhanced the design of our income tax controls to include specific activities to ensure proper classification of deferred taxes and calculation of income tax expense;
•supplemented our accounting and tax professionals with the engagement of an internationally recognized accounting firm to assist us in the technical review regarding the application of tax rules around deferred tax assets and liabilities; and
•reorganized the structure of our tax function to enhance the level of documentation, technical oversight, and review.

Management has enhanced its controls to include refinements and improvements to controls over the accounting for income taxes. While significant progress has been made as of January 31, 2017, management does not believe these controls are operating effectively. As a result, management does not believe that the material weakness has been remediated and will continue to enhance its controls over the accounting for income tax expense.

Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

Other than with respect to the remediation efforts described above, there were no changes in our internal controls over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934) during the quarter ended January 31, 2017 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal controls over financial reporting.

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