What's new?

Public company administrators can now utilize the brand new Communication Center to send secure communications to stakeholders in the company’s equity plan managed on Carta. This feature allows public companies to create and send timely communications to equity plan members in bulk. Recipients can be selected by relationship type and other filters to further customize the message’s distribution list. In addition, the Communication Center dashboard allows company administrators to view sent and drafted messages, and see which stakeholders have viewed a communication. 

Examples of communications include, but are not limited to: instructions on how stakeholders can manage their equity at Carta, employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) offerings, upcoming trading windows, and updated disclosures.

How does this work?

Permissioned company administrators may access the Communication Center. Before sending any messages, company administrators should check that the company’s Stakeholder Ledger is up-to-date to ensure messages are sent to the correct individuals. At minimum, an individual’s Relationship, Contact Email, and Officer Code (if applicable) should be updated.

Once these steps are completed, company administrators can proceed to the Communication Center dashboard (found under the Employee tab of the main navigation toolbar).

Here, company administrators with Company Editor or Legal Administrator roles can compose, review, and send secure messages with or without PDF attachments. They can also filter for previously sent and drafted messages. 

When choosing who to send a communication to, the Company Editor or Legal Administrator may send bulk messages by Relationship Type (e.g., Employee, Ex-Employee, Advisor), and then also filter recipient lists by Officer Code, Trading Restrictions, the employee stock purchasing plan (ESPP) an individual is a member of and associated status, or the outstanding security type(s) held by each stakeholder. 

Company administrators will have the opportunity to review the communication, save it as a draft, remove individuals as needed, and reconfirm the recipients before sending the message. 

After sending the message, stakeholders will receive an email notification that they received the secure message. They must log in to their Carta accounts to view the message, and messages on the Carta platform may not be forwarded to an external email account. 

Company administrators who can view the Communication Center dashboard can monitor which stakeholders have viewed the communication.  

Send secure messages and archive them safely in a centralized location with Carta’s Communication Center. 

The Communication Center allows public company administrators to: 

• Craft and send secure communications with or without PDF attachments in bulk to stakeholders within their public equity plans; 
• Easily create recipient lists by relationship type and other optional filters, removing the need to maintain multiple distribution lists manually;
• Quickly filter recipient lists of sent communications by who has or has not viewed the communication; and
• Review and archive communications to remain compliant with recordkeeping and reporting laws; 

Start using the Communication Center now!

Need help with the Communication Center? Refer to this support article for detailed instructions on how to manage, view, and send out your next secure message. 

What’s new? 

Carta improved how public company administrators can manage and designate equity plan stakeholders as Rule 144 Affiliates. Designating stakeholders as Affiliates ensures that their trade orders get reviewed before execution through a separate SEC Rule 144 due diligence workflow and that those trades are properly captured for Form 144 inclusion. Company administrators can also now easily access and review a filtered list of Rule 144 Affiliates from their Company Summary page. 

The management of Rule 144 Affiliate status has been separated from the Officer Code workflow to simplify this process and to ensure trading blackout periods for stakeholders with certain Officer Code(s) will not be impacted by one’s Rule 144 Affiliate status.

How does it work?

Company administrators can update Rule 144 Affiliate status by clicking on “Manage Employees” on the Company Summary page. 

From there, administrators can click on each stakeholder’s record and view their current Rule 144 Affiliate status. Administrators can also track the Effective Date of when a stakeholder was first marked as an Affiliate without leveraging Officer Codes.

To designate an individual as a Rule 144 Affiliate, administrators can check the box within the Update Stakeholder flow:

Easily manage, review, and designate public equity plan stakeholders as Rule 144 Affiliates to ensure trading compliance via an improved workflow.

With the improved Rule 144 Affiliate workflow, company administrators can:

• Easily manage, review, and designate equity plan stakeholders as Rule 144 Affiliates;
• Be assured that Affiliate trades go through the proper reviews and are included on Form 144; and
• Set blackout trading periods for certain Officer Code(s) without an impact to a stakeholder’s Rule 144 Affiliate status.

Start using the improved Rule 144 Affiliate status workflow now!

Do you want to update Rule 144 Affiliate status for individual stakeholders or in bulk? Refer to this support article for more information. 

What's new?

Issuers running a secondary transaction, such as a tender offer, through Carta Liquidity on the CartaX ATS can now access on demand real-time seller participation data during a live transaction via the Issuer Transaction Dashboard (“Dashboard”). 

How does it work?

Issuers can access their brokerage account online and click on their live transaction, where they will see their Dashboard. The “Participation overview” tab includes three key sections:

• Participation breakdown: The pie chart provides a summary of the transaction’s subscription rate by Relationship type. Issuers can quickly see how close the transaction is to being fully subscribed. Relationship type is determined during the transaction’s setup period.
• Participant engagement: The bar chart details the number of sellers who (a) have been invited to the transaction, (b) viewed the transaction, and (c) decided to participate by tendering shares.
• Relationship summary: The table summarizes the participation level across all Relationship types. Details include the participation rate, shares tendered, and the notional value of tendered shares.

The table and charts on this page will update in real-time during the live transaction. 

The “Transaction overview” tab of the Dashboard will be accessible at the close of the offering period and provides a summary of the transaction, including a breakdown of deposits made into the Issuer’s brokerage account. Issuers will be able to access and download their Trade Confirmation and Transaction Summary reports here as well.  

Save time and gain real-time transaction and participation data on demand with the Issuer Transaction Dashboard

The Issuer Transaction Dashboard will: 

• Give you real-time transaction and participation data on demand during a live transaction;
• Provide you with full oversight and enhance your foresight over the transaction’s results related to filling a buy order; and 
• Make it easier for you to provide your team with updates on a transaction and Relationship type level, preserving the confidentiality of individual seller activity.

Reach out to Carta to get the process started

Do you want to run a tender offer or other private secondary transaction with a fully-integrated cap table experience? Reach out to Carta Liquidity’s Corporate Coverage team at company_coverage@cartacapitalmarkets.com to figure out the best path towards liquidity. 

Disclaimer: Carta, through its wholly owned broker-dealer subsidiary, Carta Capital Markets, LLC, offers a streamlined experience for executing pre-negotiated stock transfers, tender offers, and other secondary liquidity transactions. Carta Capital Markets, LLC is a member of FINRA/SIPC.

What's new

Employees who have access to Carta Tax Advisory through their employer may now choose from up to four different tax advisory session types. This aims to provide transparency and flexibility so you can have the conversation that's right for you. 

Who this affects

US-based employees subscribed to Carta Tax Advisory through their employer

How it works

Scheduling a session

Log in to your  Carta employee account, navigate to the Tax advice tab.

From there, click on "Book a free session" to browse different session types. 

Once you're on the session type selection page, you'll see a brief outline on how to schedule and a selection of three to four different session types. 

Select the session type that's right for you and click "Schedule free session" to book a time with a tax advisor. 

If you're not quite sure where to start, we recommend starting with the "Understand equity basics" session type to learn about your equity and taxes at a high level.

Note: The "Discuss tender offer participation" session type only appears if your company is currently undergoing a tender offer. 

Preparing for a session

Session types: Discuss tender offer participation | Create tax scenarios

Once you've scheduled a time to speak with a tax advisor, you'll be prompted to upload a few documents. Tax advisors will create personalized tax scenarios using this information so you can have the most accurate tax picture. 

If you don't have these documents on hand now, you can skip this step for later. However, you must upload documents at least 24 hours before your session so advisors have enough time to prepare. 

You'll receive a calendar invite with a zoom link to attend your session at your scheduled time. You can also see this information in your tax advice tab in Carta, with the option to reschedule or cancel using the "View details" button. 

Session types: Ask a quick question | Understand equity basics

Once you've scheduled a time to speak with a tax advisor, there's nothing else you need to prepare ahead of your session.

You'll receive a calendar invite with a zoom link to attend your session at your scheduled time. You can also see this information in your tax advice tab in Carta, with the option to reschedule or cancel using the "View details" button. 

What's new

New hire onboarding allows new hires to access their Carta account before they receive and accept their equity grant. By creating a stakeholder record for the employee, employees receive an email to register for a Carta account. This grants them access to Carta Tax Advisory.

If you do not add new hires they will need to wait to accept their equity grant in order to access Carta resources, which can take several months to approve and issue. 

New employees often have questions about their equity as soon as they join a company, Carta Tax Advisory gives them access to dedicated 1:1 support from equity tax experts from day 1 to help them understand their equity packages. 

Who does this affect?

Companies subscribed to Carta Tax Advisory

US-based employees (new hires) at companies subscribed to Carta Tax Advisory

How can I give new hires access to their Carta account?

Important notes before starting: 

1. The new hire onboarding process only applies to companies subscribed to Carta Tax Advisory. 
2. Tax advisory sessions are only available to US citizens or residents
3. Adding an employee into Carta as a stakeholder provides them access to Carta services like Carta Tax Advisory. Ensure you only add employees you intend to issue equity to.

The Stakeholder ledger allows users with Company editor or Legal administrator permissions to view and modify information for a person that holds multiple securities across the company 

Navigate to Stakeholders > All Stakeholders

Under the Manage Stakeholders drop-down, admins can add stakeholders individually or in bulk

Individually add stakeholders

Select “Add stakeholder” in the Manage stakeholders dropdown list

A modal will appear requesting information about the stakeholder

Required fields:

• First name
• Last name
• Relationship (i.e. employee)
• Relationship effective date

• Add and save an address 

  • Country (3 digit) 
  • State (2 digit)

Tax ID, Employee ID, Payroll ID, and other address fields can be input as available, but are not required before equity grant issuance

Bulk add stakeholders

Select Bulk add stakeholders from the Manage stakeholders dropdown

Download the template spreadsheet to import stakeholders’ information, save, and upload the modified file. Carta will run a check on the data entered before saving the changes

Note: Admins should not add new columns or move columns in this sheet. They must use the template as is

Required columns: 

• First name
• Last name
• Relationship (i.e. employee)
• Relationship effective date (MM/DD/YYYY)
• Country (3 digit) 
• State (2 digit)

After the updated xslx sheet is uploaded, click “Submit changes” and a confirmation modal will appear

Confirm to complete stakeholder creation

What's new?

Carta has made it easier for private companies running a tender offer to invoke IRS Revenue Procedure 2002-50, which is applicable to certain transactions involving the exercise of options and sale of the resulting securities during a transaction on the same day. This procedure allows for the exclusion of those same day option sales from Form 1099-B reporting if certain conditions are met. For example, this may apply to cashless exercised options in connection with a secondary transaction on Carta where there is no capital gain (Sale Price = Fair Market Value).

How does it work?

To make a Revenue Procedure 2002-50 election on an applicable transaction, company administrators may request an Officer Certificate template from Carta to complete and get signed by a Company Officer who has the authority to make decisions on the tax treatment of cashless exercises in a tender offer.

Fig 1: Sample of an Officer Certificate

The completed form can then be returned to Carta, who will then trigger the Revenue Procedure. 

Any employee whose transactions on Carta were excluded from 1099-B reporting as a result of Revenue Procedure 2002-50 will, if applicable, receive a supplemental Disclosure Statement detailing the fees and gross proceeds on cashless exercises of options so they can complete their Form 8949 reporting. Compensatory income from cashless exercises is reported as ordinary income on the W-2.  

This statement will be delivered electronically by February 15th of the following year in the same manner as all other tax documents on Carta. No such statement will be generated if the employee was not charged any fees by Carta.

Fig 2: Sample of IRS Revenue Procedure 2002-50 Disclosure Statement

The company administrator can also generate a new report of all the Disclosure Statements issued after the transaction. The Revenue Procedure Disclosure Statements Report will assist in auditing transactions ahead of the tax season to ensure completeness and accuracy for tax filing purposes. The report can be found under your Reports section in Carta.   

Fig 3: Sample of Disclosure Statements Report

Make tax reporting easier for same-day option exercises and sales during a tender offer by invoking Revenue Procedure 2002-50

The Revenue Procedure feature will:

• Remove an employee’s burden to reconcile their Form 1099-B and Form W-2 when determining their Taxable Income after a same day option exercise and sale
• Reduce the risk of paying capital gains tax on proceeds that were already taxed as ordinary income

Reach out to Carta to get the process started

Is your company running a tender offer? If so, the Revenue Procedure 2002-50 will be enabled on the platform after returning a completed and signed Officer Certificate to Carta. Companies who ran a tender offer previously in 2022 can retroactively upload the appropriate Officer Certificate to benefit from this feature until the end of 2022. Please contact your CSM or Liquidity representative for more information.

What's new?

After reviewing customer feedback, Carta made several user experience enhancements in the Form 3921 dashboard.

The enhanced user experience also allows company stock administrators to download the Manage Stakeholder Details report to review all stakeholder records at once instead of in a paginated view within the Administrator Experience. Companies with 50+ stakeholders now have enhanced filter and sorting capabilities (e.g, select one or multiple years to download the Stakeholder details ledger) to better analyze historical data.

There is a new tab for “Exclude Transactions” for further flexibility if company administrators need to suppress reporting on individual option exercises. 

How does it work?

The new Form 3921 Dashboard is available now to all companies subscribed to this feature.

Reach out to Carta to get the process started

Reach out to your CSM to enable Form 3921 reporting if you are interested in upgrading your subscription. Public Market companies will have this enabled by default.

What's new?

Upon going public, issuers must communicate the share positions held on their former cap table to their new public Transfer Agent. Carta’s Mass Issuance report captures key information that Transfer Agents in order to validate and reflect public share ownership following an IPO. 

The Mass Issuance report aggregates pertinent cap table and tax-related (e.g, cost basis) information, typically found in multiple reports, into one export file containing information required by the Transfer Agent. Now issuers can easily export ownership information for communication to their Transfer Agent in one step.  

The Mass Issuance report includes additional information on the Issuer's stock program shares to make it easier for the Issuer to move the eligible portion of its stock ledger back to an equity management provider - such as Carta - from the Transfer Agent. This helps preserve critical tax information while facilitating the delivery of public shares to the stakeholder's Carta portfolio for trading.

How does it work?

Experience a secure and smooth data transition as you move your private equity records to a public Transfer Agent. 

The Mass Issuance report:

• allows for the easy communication of ownership data to a public Transfer Agent in one file ahead of an IPO, SPAC or direct listing; and
• includes additional fields needed for when you permission your Transfer Agent to send your public stock ledger to a public equity management provider of choice - such as Carta.

Reach out to Carta to get the process started

Are you preparing to go public? Reach out to Carta’s public markets team (carta.public@carta.com) to begin planning your IPO journey.

The Mass Issuance report can be found under your Reports section in Carta.   

What's new?

Customers wishing to allow their shareholders to sell a portion of their holdings prior to a traditional 180-day lockup expiration can now control early lockup release programs through Carta. With Carta’s early lockup release functionality, your company can specify the quantity of shares each shareholder can sell during a specified period. 

Carta’s Public Market Equity Management Services team will work with companies to determine: 

1. shareholder eligibility for the early lock-up release period
2. the start and end date of the liquidity period
3. how many shares each individual may sell during the period

After gathering this information, Carta will then work with the customer to complete an import template, which will be uploaded to Carta's public platform. Eligible shareholders will now be able to see the quantity of shares they can trade, what they’ve already traded, and what portion of shares is still remaining. 

Allow your employees to begin trading company shares Day 1 post-IPO

The early lockup release feature:

• allows your employees to sell prior to the standard 180-day lockup period while enforcing the terms of your company’s early lockup release program; and
• makes it easy to instruct participation eligibility and quantity limits for all shareholders.

Figure 1: Shareholders can monitor the number of shares they can sell during the early lockup release.

Figure 2: Shareholders are limited to the quantity of shares that they are allowed to sell per the rules of the early lockup release. Quantities can be set specific to an individual.

Trade limits apply across asset types. The sale of long stock, in addition to cashless option transactions, will count against the shareholder’s total allowed quantity to trade, ensuring that the stakeholder won’t oversell per the terms of the early lockup release.

Reach out to Carta to get the process started

Reach out to Carta’s Public Markets team (carta.public@carta.com) to begin customizing an early lockup release benefit for your employees ahead of an exit.

Who This Affects

Users without a verified secondary email address

What’s New

Additional emails are required to assist users with providing a secondary login credential in case access to their primary email address is lost. As part of our efforts to improve our clients' account security, we are updating the process of adding and verifying your additional email address. 

As part of this release, we will be notifying all users without a verified additional email address to add or verify the email they have listed. This subset of users will be receiving an email notification, as well as an outstanding task in their Carta account’s task manager. 

Timing

• This update is available to 25% of randomly selected Carta users
• General availability for all users by the end of Q2