On-demand educational content for employees with Tax Advisory

What's new

Employees who have access to Carta Tax Advisory through their employer now have access to on-demand educational content in their Carta portfolio. As an employee, you have the ability to re-watch your company’s recorded webinar, as well as view chapters of key concepts about your equity. The video chapters cover topics such as exercising your option, selling your options and other important topics.


Who this affects

This feature is available to employees who have access to Carta Tax Advisory through their employer. Employees will be able to view their company's recorded webinar once it has been completed.

Where to find it

As an employee, navigate to the Learn section of the Tax Advice page in your Carta portfolio. If you have any additional questions, please schedule a session with an Equity Tax Advisor.

Introducing Session Types for Tax Advisory


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. 

After uploading your documents, you're ready for 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. 

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. 



New Hire Onboarding for Tax Advisory

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 

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


Capital Calls on Android

General partners now have the ability to view and track capital calls from the Carta Android app. Investment firms can now track the progress of on-going and completed calls along with investor details, on the go, straight from the Carta mobile app.

Who this affects

  • Fund administration clients

Supported platforms

  • Android (Previously available on iOS)

What's new

Fund Administration clients can now access their capital call details and investor information from the Carta Android app.

  • The home screen now provides a summary of active capital calls with the ability to view individual call details.
  • Navigating to a capital call allows you to view further call and investor details along with a full investor list which can be filtered by Paid and Unpaid calls.
  • The Fund Details page now also provides a capital summary and the ability to view a list of Active, Drafted, and Completed calls.


Cashless Exercising on Mobile

Carta users will now be able to perform a Cashless Hold Exercise and Cashless Sell Exercise on the mobile app. 

Who this affects

  • Public Markets Users

Supported Platforms

  • iOS and Android

What’s new

Users with holdings in public companies on Carta will now be able to exercise and sell their shares via a Cashless Hold or Cashless Sell transaction while on-the-go through the Carta mobile app. These features were previously available to users via desktop, and this launch closes the previously existing gap in functionality between the Carta web experience and the Carta mobile app. 


Web-Login on Mobile

Carta mobile app users will now be able to login using a web-browser on iOS and Android. Web-login gives us the benefits of browser-based authentication, and better security, without disrupting the user experience.

Who this affects

Employees and Investors

Supported Platforms

iOS & Android

What’s New

In an effort to bring login and authentication together across all Carta platforms, we are launching browser-based login on mobile. The web-login experience will use Safari on iOS and a default browser on Android.



Carta Web now has Section 6039: Form 3922 tax form generation

What's new? 

Carta Web now supports the generation of Form 3922 for Employee Stock Purchase Plans in the Company Administrator view. Companies that would normally have access to the Compliance tab, can now request access to Section 6039 from their Customer Success Managers. Form 3922 forms are due to stakeholder portfolios by January 31, 2022. By enabling this functionality in Carta Web, administrators are now in control of the Form 3922 generation and distribution, similar to Form 3921 for Incentive Stock Option Exercises.

NOTE: This feature can be enabled upon request from companies that have an Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

From the IRS:

Corporations file this form (3922) for each transfer of the legal title of a share of stock acquired by the employee pursuant to the employee's exercise of an option granted under an employee stock purchase plan and described in section 423(c) (where the exercise price is less than 100% of the value of the stock on the date of grant, or is not fixed or determinable on the date of grant).

How to Use

  1. To generate Form 3922, navigate to Compliance > Section 6039.
    NOTE: TCC is not required to generate Form 3922 Copy B for employees.
     
  2. Click Generate.
     
  3. Select the Effective Year of the report.
     
  4. Review any missing information, check off the box to confirm company data, then click Next: add contact info. If any information is missing, complete the information, then return to this stage.
     
  • If Company tax data is not complete:

    1. Navigate to Company > Settings.
    2. Click into the Profile tab.
    3. Enter Tax ID, TCC (required to generate Copy A, but not required for Copy B) and address.

  • If Stakeholder tax details are not complete, update missing data under the Stakeholder details tab of the same Form 3922 page

    1. The names, addresses, and SSNs can be edited individually by clicking Edit to the right of the stakeholder’s row.
    2. The stakeholder details can also be updated in bulk via Stakeholders > All stakeholders page. Review these instructions to bulk update stakeholder details.

 

5. If the missing data was entered in, return to the Compliance > Section 6039 page and click Generate to click through the steps to proceed and add company contact information. The company contact is formatted into the electronic Copy A .txt file that will be uploaded to the IRS site.


Click Generate Form 3922 to begin the generation of the files.

 

6. Refresh the page after some time if you see a spinning wheel or navigate away and return later.

 

7. Once generated, click Download reports for the tax year to download a .zip file to your local drive that contains all necessary data for Copy A (efile), and Copy B (statements).

 

The .zip file will be split out into the following three files:

  • efile will be a specially formatted electronic .txt file.
    NOTE: Do not edit this file. Only download and upload to the IRS FIRE site. If any data needs to be updated, repeat the initial steps for the same filing tax year to regenerate the reports and download the updated files.
     
  • statements should be delivered to all holders who acquired stock through an ESPP by the January 31st deadline and can be delivered electronically on Carta by clicking the link to Deliver participant statements

 

For any filing questions, contact your tax advisor. 


Who this affects

Public and Private Market companies with an ESPP. 

Timing

This feature can be enabled on demand by reaching out to our support team or Customer Success Managers.

What's Next

The product team will be enhancing Form 3921 functionality to bring it more in line with the new Section 6039 admin experience.   

1099B Cost Basis Report available to Company Admins

What’s new?

We are releasing a report to all Private Market companies for administrators to review their certificate cost basis and original acquisition dates. This report will allow administrators to view cost basis data prior to the delivery of 1099B tax statements to stakeholders by mid-February.

How it works

This in-app report is available by navigating from Capitalization -> Reporting -> Form 1099b cost basis report.

Administrators will be able to view columns like stakeholder details, certificate ID's, quantity of shares sold, date acquired (original acquisition date), proceeds, gain/loss, and including various cost basis fields: 

  • cost_basis_total_certificate = full value going back to the original certificate
  • cost_basis_per_share = cost basis of total certificate / total shares quantity
  • cost_basis_sold_certificate = cost basis per share X sold shares quantity

From this report, Issuers can identify which certificates need to be changed and/or excluded from tax filing, and will have the opportunity to correct the data until late-January.

Who does this impact?

This report will be available to individuals with role permissions of Company Admin, and including Company Editors.

What’s next?

In the next month, Carta's Liquidity team will be reaching out to ensure that data has been reviewed and is considered approved by Issuers for generating 1099B statements. Stakeholders will be able to access tax statements in their portfolios by mid-February.

Adjust taxes for option exercises

What’s new

Companies can now adjust taxes for option exercises previously approved in Carta.

Legal administrators can navigate to the Exercises ledger (Transactions > Exercises) and select "Adjust taxes" within a ledger row dropdown to find the new tool:


How it works

The "Adjust taxes" tool will not be available for option exercises in the "Requested" status since option exercise approvers can adjust taxes as part of the exercise approval workflow.

For ACH option exercises already approved by the company or for company-entered manual exercises, the "Adjust taxes" tool will be available for use.

After a legal administrator selects "Adjust taxes" from the Exercises ledger, they'll see the following modal:

The legal administrator will be asked to provide a reason for the adjustment. Next, the following actions are available:

  • Un-check a box next to a tax type to remove it from the option exercise
  • Re-check a box to re-add a previously removed tax type to the option exercise
  • Update the specific tax withholding amount in the "Adjusted" column
  • Select "Add another tax type" to add a new tax type to the option exercise

Note that new tax types can't be added from this modal. If you'd like to add a new tax type to the exercise, add it first in the Tax rules page (Compliance > Tax rules) and then come back to the "Adjust taxes" tool to add it to the option exercise.

Once the adjustment has been saved, both the company and the stakeholder will see a blue banner when viewing the option grant. The banner contains information about the newly adjusted tax amount and exercise cost in addition to when the adjustment was entered in Carta:

Adjusted tax amounts will also be reflected in the "Exercised and settled report" and the "Tax withholding report" (Capitalization > Reporting).

For more information, check out the support article for the new "Adjust taxes" tool: https://support.carta.com/s/article/adjust-taxes-option-exercises

Who this affects

Private and public companies that issue option grants.

Timing

Available to all companies now.

View Public Company Holdings on Mobile

Users with holdings in public companies will now have the ability to view their holdings for both public and private companies straight from the Carta iOS app. Shareholders can now track market values, view total holdings value and more.

Who this affects

Shareholders with holdings in public companies.

Supported platforms

  • iOS (Android coming soon)

What's new

With an aim to provide functional and streamlined experiences for shareholders, we’ve brought the ability to view public holdings on the Carta iOS app. Public company cards will now be present among private companies on the home screen. The following information will be displayed for each public company card with the ability to view further details when clicked:

  • Total number of shares held
  • Total holdings value
  • Net holdings value

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