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409(a) Valuations, doing it by the book, and other IRS pitfalls

Ravens_Shadow

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Do any of you guys do 409(A) valuations for your companies? Does anyone know how it works? If I grant equity to new employees do they have to pay an absurd amount of taxes? Why with any accountant or lawyer i've ever had have they *never* mentioned this requirement by the IRS? From what I'm reading online, it is a legal requirement to do this for your business and yet this is the first time i'm hearing about this.
 
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CareCPA

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Broad-stroking it here: different types of equity grants are taxed in different ways. If you're giving them direct equity, the value of that equity would generally be included in their compensation in the year it is given. If you are granting options to purchase, the taxation is a bit different depending on how the options are structured.

Either way, at particular points you will need to know the fair market value of the company so you know how much to include in their compensation.

In your very early days, it is entirely possible that your value was $0 or even negative, so probably less of an issue then. Now that your business is larger, it's probably a much bigger issue.

A fun example I had recently (numbers made up because it seems inappropriate to look for the specific amounts):
A startup company grants you an option to purchase 10,000 shares in 2 years for a price of $0.10 per share. In the year of the option exercise, the stock is worth $50 per share (based on the independent valuation you reference). You pay 10,000 * $0.10 = $1,000, you receive 10,000 shares of stock, and at the end of the year you receive a 1099/W-2 (depending on your relationship with the company) for 10,000 * ($50 - $0.10) = $499,000 of compensation/income.

Now you probably need to come up with about $499,000 * 30% = ~$150k for taxes, so hopefully you either have cash somewhere else, or there is a market to liquidate some of the stock you just bought.
(note, some companies will allow you to liquidate some stock to pay the withholding at the time of the option exercise. I'm not sure if this is limited to public companies, or if private companies offer this as well)
 

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