What’s new?

Stakeholders that have sold through Carta Inc.’s tender offer feature or Carta Inc.’s public markets product can now view the delivery status of their 1099-B tax document. This new feature allows sellers to determine that their 1099-B for a particular selling year:

• has already been delivered
• will be delivered
• is not applicable for the year and won’t be delivered

How does this improve the stakeholder’s experience?

1099-B forms capture the capital gains reported to the IRS for sales done on Carta. Sellers use the information on their form 1099-Bs to file their taxes.

Not all sales done on Carta Inc.’s tender offer tool or Carta Inc.’s public markets product are reported on 1099-Bs. Prior to the release of this product, stakeholders have reported challenges in determining why they did not receive a 1099-B for a calendar year. This tool allows stakeholders to determine the status of their 1099-B quickly and clearly.

1099-Bs might not be provided for several reasons:

• The stakeholder is not subject to IRS reporting (is under a W-8BEN)
• All sales done are cashless sales and the issuer is using Carta’s Rev Proc 2002-50 functionality
• The stakeholder did not sell anything for the tax year where they were paid proceeds through Carta Inc.’s tender offer tool or Carta Inc.’s public markets product 
• All transactions excluded from filing (a common reason is treating the dispositions as option cancellations rather than cashless sales)

How does it work?

The stakeholder navigates to account:tax documents where all 1099-B documents are stored, and clicks on the “Missing a Form 1099-B” link:

From here, the participant can select the tax year and check the status on that year’s 1099-B:

The tool will indicate that either the 1099-B has already been distributed, or will give the reason that the stakeholder has not received a 1099-B for that year.

Starting today, we are launching a new feature that will reduce the ACH transaction processing time for money movements on Carta by 33%. Previously, most ACH transfers took 6-7 business days to complete. We have made a few infrastructure changes to reduce transfer times by up to 2 business days. 

Who is this for? 

This change will impact all private and public corporations who move money directly on Carta, as well as holders of securities from these firms. LLCs will not be impacted by this change. 

How long will my transfers take? 

There is a slight variation in how long ACH transfers will take depending on what type of transaction the company or holder is making. The estimated processing times for the following transactions are below:

• SAFE Financings transactions: 4-5 business days (previously 6-7 business days)
• Private company exercises: 4-5 business days (previously 6-7 business days)
• Private company ACH repurchases: 3-4 business days (previously 5-6 business days)
• Public market trade settlements: 1 business day (previously 2 business days)
• Public markets options exercise: 4-5 business days (previously 6-7 business days)
• CINC tender offers: 1 business day (previously 2 business days)

I am a company administrator. How do I approve exercise requests in Carta?

Company administrators with the Option exercise approver role are able to individually review the submitted online option exercise requests and historical option exercises from the Transactions > Exercises page on Carta. For detailed instructions, you can check out this support article. 

I am a company administrator. How do I track early exercise requests and 83(b) elections?

Use the Filter function to select Yes for Early exercise to track 83(b) elections from the option holders. The ledger will display a filing status that depends on when the option holder originally submitted the early exercise request and whether or not the option holder explicitly chose to file an 83(b) election. Learn more about the 83(b) election. 

I hold options in a company that uses Carta to manage its equity. How do I exercise options on Carta via ACH? 

Exercising options into shares on Carta via ACH is available to US-based option holders of US private companies exercising ISOs, NSOs, or ISO/NSO split option grants. You can review detailed instructions in this support article. 

What’s new?

Employees who have access to Carta Tax Advisory through their employer now have access to new, personalized educational content in their Carta portfolio. The release contains a few features for employees:

1. New Learn page with personalized education chapters.

The Learn page will have videos organized in personalized chapters, based on your equity and employment status. Chapters include:

• Getting started
• Purchasing options
• Selling Equity
• Leaving your company
• Previously recorded webinars for your company
  
  
  
  
  

2. Video player page with remaining videos in the chapter

3. 'Recommended for you' videos on the portfolio page

4. Schedule a session button on the portfolio home page

You can now easily schedule a 1-1 session with your Carta Tax Advisor, directly from your portfolio.

5. Coming soon: Recommendations will be driven by your 1-1 conversation with a Carta Tax Advisor!

What do I need to do?

You can access the new feature directly from your portfolio, or navigate to the ‘Learn’ page in the navigation bar.

Have questions? Contact product@carta.com.

Today we’re making design improvements to the RSU Modal to make it easier for holders to understand the value of their equity. 

What is changing? 

RSU holders now can see a summary view of their securities in the details tab, including an overview table with units breakdown. Also, double trigger RSUs are no longer stuck in a zeroed state, they can now see a breakdown of vesting information, including time-vested amounts.

Changes to the Details tab of the RSU Modal

RSU holders will see the following information on the RSU details page: 

1. Original quantity / Issued: Total amount of RSUs granted on the issue date
2. Released for settlement: The number of vested units that have been part of a settlement event
3. Delivered: The number of shares ultimately delivered to the holder as a result of converting the RSU, after any shares withheld by the issuer as payment for the holder's tax obligation
4. Withheld at settlement: The number of shares that have been withheld to cover taxes at settlement
5. Partially-vested amount: eligible for settlement when performance is hit, or the the total number of shares time vested, and available for settlement
6. Remainder: Resulting number of shares from original quantity, after subtracting settled and withhold amounts 

The bottom of the details tab will now include an employee education modal, which will be used to surface important education about their RSUs. 

Changes to the Vesting Schedules tab of the RSU Modal 

Now, holders can see the cumulative values for all vesting conditions applicable to their RSUs, which can be time or milestone based, with or without additional performance conditions.

We’ve updated the Vesting Schedules tab to account for the following scenarios (screenshots of each below):

1. Double trigger RSU (Based on time and an additional condition)
2. Double Trigger RSU (Based on milestones and an additional condition)
3. Single Trigger RSU (Based on time)
4. Single Trigger RSU (Based on milestones)
5. RSU has been terminated or expired

Double trigger RSU (Based on time and an additional condition) 

Double Trigger (Based on milestones and an additional condition) 

Single trigger (Based on time)

Single trigger (Based on milestones)

RSU has been terminated or expired

Visit the resource center for more details

Have additional questions? Check out support.carta.com to learn more.

What’s New

Employees attending 1-1 sessions with Carta Tax Advisors will now receive a post-session recap in their Carta portfolio.

Sample session recap:

The session recap will contain:

• Notes from your Carta Tax Advisor about the conversation you had during the 1-1
• A link to schedule a follow-up session with your Carta Tax Advisor
• A snapshot of your equity as of the time of your 1-1 session

What do I need to do?

You can access the session recap directly from the Tax Advice page in your portfolio or from the email sent to you after your 1-1 session is completed.

Have questions? Contact product@carta.com.

What’s New

Employees with Carta's iOS application and notifications enabled will now receive reminder notifications, 15 minutes ahead of their Carta Tax Advisory session. If you have the Zoom application on your phone, the notification will open the Zoom meeting directly and enable you to join the session on your phone.

What do I need to do?

To receive the notification:

1. If you have not already done so, download the Carta iOS application, 
2. Enable push notifications in the settings of the iOS app.
3. Schedule a 1-1 session from your Carta portfolio.

Have questions? Contact product@carta.com.

What's new?

Carta now helps private company administrators coordinate the settlement of Restricted Stock Units (RSUs). The end-to-end offering allows an Issuer to:

• configure and schedule a RSU Settlement;
• provide RSU holders with an election period to identify how they want to pay the tax withholding obligation associated with the upcoming settlement;
• collect any cash payments from RSU holders; and
• automatically update the cap table at settlement.

During the election period, RSU holders are invited to access a workflow to view their vested RSUs along with the tax withholding amounts due at settlement. They have the flexibility to meet their tax obligation by electing to net-settle, pay the full amount in cash, or use a combination of surrendered shares and cash. 

This offering helps facilitate the RSU settlement process from setup to share delivery for private Issuers that award RSUs under their equity compensation plans.

How does it work?

Issuers

Private company administrators can go through a four-step process to configure an upcoming RSU Settlement with Carta Liquidity. Issuers can:

• set the parameters of the settlement (e.g., FMV, election timing, settlement date); 
• view and confirm the RSUs that will be included based on the vesting end date (i.e., record date); and 
• view and confirm tax withholding amounts associated with the settlement. 

Issuers can set rates to use when calculating tax withholdings owed based on each RSU holder’s tax jurisdiction(s). Carta Liquidity’s integration with Carta’s equity management platform and tax engine eliminates the need for the administrator to pull and sort cap table information manually or calculate tax withholdings for each RSU holder. Alternatively, Issuer’s can provide tax withholding amounts calculated by their HRIS provider for use in the settlement.

RSU holders

When the administrators invite RSU holders to submit their elections, RSU holders will be able to view which of their RSUs will be settled and the tax withholding amount due per security. In addition, individuals will identify how they would like to satisfy the tax withholding amount owed through a self-service election workflow. 

The three tax withholding payment options include:  

• Share withholding (i.e., net settlement) - The entire tax withholding amount is paid by surrendering a portion of shares from the vested RSUs released for settlement. The net amount of shares after withholding will be delivered to a RSU holder at settlement. This is the default option.
• Cash payment - The entire tax withholding amount is paid by a RSU holder in cash (only USD is accepted). RSU holders are required to fund their brokerage account in order to make this election.
• Share and cash payment - Each RSU holder identifies the mix of cash and shares that will be used to pay the taxes due at settlement, providing them more flexibility. RSU holders are required to fund their brokerage account in order to make this election.

For any cash elections, RSU holders are instructed to transfer the necessary cash to their Carta Liquidity brokerage account*. RSU holders are able to modify their election until the end of the election period. 

At settlement, Carta Liquidity’s integration with Carta’s equity management platform automatically updates an Issuer’s cap table to reflect the shares of stock delivered to RSU holders, and any cash payments received to cover applicable tax obligations will be transferred automatically to the Issuer’s brokerage account. RSU holders will then receive their resulting equity from the Issuer in their Carta accounts. In addition, Carta Liquidity will provide a record of the RSU settlement to both the Issuer and RSU holders. 

Run regular RSU settlement processes with automatic cap table updates and tax withholding calculations, saving your team time and resources 

The RSU Settlement offering will:

• Reduce the manual administrative work required to set up a regular cadence of RSU settlement through equity management and tax engine integrations
• Provide RSU holders flexibility to choose how they would like to meet their tax withholding obligations through a self-service election workflow
• Provide optionality to RSU holders to pay out of pocket for the amount they feel comfortable paying.

Start managing RSU Settlements on Carta!

Reach out to company_coverage@cartacapitalmarkets.com to speak with your relationship manager to turn on this feature. 

*Note: Brokerage accounts and other brokerage services are offered through Carta Capital Markets, LLC (Member: FINRA/SIPC)

What’s New

When a user’s bank account does not have sufficient funds to pay for the exercise via ACH, Carta will warn the user when reviewing the exercise. The user will have the option to change the selected bank account, lower the amount of options to exercise, or proceed with the exercise.

Additional improvements to the review exercise page better highlight key details of the exercise, reducing the need for scrolling. The UI also now explicitly states that the total represents a cost to the user.

Users choosing to proceed are then given a final message that an underfunded exercise may be canceled.

Who this affects

This feature is available to employees who have set up their ACH bank account on Carta through Plaid. 

How it works

Carta is using Plaid Balance to confirm the available balance of the associated bank account prior to submitting the exercise request. No account balance information is stored on Carta. This feature does not block users from submitting exercise requests, rather warns them about the potential risk of a canceled exercise.

What happens if the selected bank account doesn’t have enough money for the exercise? 
We now warn users that their account doesn’t seem to have enough money to cover the exercise cost. We allow them to proceed anyway, as they could potentially add funds to the account before Carta attempts to pull the funds. If it turns out there are insufficient funds, we will cancel the exercise.

How does Carta know how much money is in my bank account?
By connecting a bank account through Plaid, we can use Plaid’s APIs to retrieve real-time balance information at the time of the exercise request. Checking the accounts available balance represents the predicted balance net of any pending transactions. This type of information is often used to protect against overdrafts and non-sufficient funds fees. For more information on Plaid Balance, see here.

What if I manually connected my bank account?
Users can always connect their bank accounts manually instead of using Plaid. For these users we cannot know their available balance and they will not receive any warnings about insufficient funds.

Timing

• 12/21/2022 - Released to 25% of users, with general availability by the end of January

How do I learn more or get help?

Visit Carta Support for more details on Exercising Using ACH and Setting Up Your Bank Account

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.

What’s New

We have made UI improvements to our Wire Instructions for online wire exercises. The new UI better highlights the amount, timeline, and considerations for completing the transfer. The updates include:

• User and exercise specific details such as grant, company, option holder, date, and amount.
• Clearer instructions for the bank on how to handle intermediary fees with specific SWIFT payment instructions. 
• Approval and reminder emails now show the last day for Carta to receive funds, so the exercise can be complete.

Who this affects

All international users who are exercising options via online wire. 

How it works

The updated Wire Instructions will be available in the same places as before (Tasks view, PDF, Exercise Progress view). You can see the new templates here:

Tasks view

PDF

Exercise Progress view

Email communication

Both Approval and Reminder emails show the date for Carta to receive funds.

Timing

• Available on all online wire exercises starting 11/30/2022

Additional Resources

Support Article: Exercising Via Online Wire