Why Can’t I Generate 83(b) Election?
Have you had any problems generating 83(B) Election?
The 83(B) Election allows shareholders to pay their taxes on total FMV (Fair Market Value) on restricted securities (including stock options) at the grant issuance date. It also applies to early exercised options, common and preferred shares subject to vesting.
Note: The 83(B) Election feature is only available for premium account holders. Kindly upgrade your account to unlock this feature.
Once you have issued a grant then you can use the Pre-Filled or Shareholder-Fill Out Form to generate 83(B). The shareholders have 30 days to mail the form to the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) after grant issuance.
REASON 1
After creating your company on Eqvista, you must add shareholders to your company account. Check out our support article on how to add shareholders on Eqvista.
Note: You can add a shareholder while issuing shares, options, warrants, or convertible notes by clicking the option “Add Shareholder”.
It is important to check if you have created a shareholder profile.
Log into your Eqvista account and select the company account. Then, click on “Shareholders” on the left-hand side of the dashboard.
Note: You must have a shareholder profile created. If there are 20 shareholders in your company profile and you want to add more, kindly upgrade your account.
Here you will see all the shareholders created.
REASON 2
It is important to check if the issued grant meets the eligibility criteria.
Identifying Grants:
The grants issued must be Restricted Stock Awards, Common shares, Preferred shares, or Early Exercised options with vesting schedule are eligible for 83(B) Elections.
Here is an example of a grant eligible for 83(B) Election.
Here is an example of grants not eligible for 83(B) Election.
1. Common Shares without Vesting Schedule
2. Preferred Shares with Vesting Schedule but Old Issue Date
3. Options with Vesting Schedule and Proper Date but Partially Exercised
Eligibility Criteria:
The system considers the grant issuance date and the current date for eligibility criteria. The reason is that the 83(B) Election must be sent to the IRS within 30 days of receiving the shares.
For example, if today’s date is February 3rd, the system will consider all the grants issued between January 3rd and February 3rd for generating the 83(b) form.
REASON 3
The shareholders of your company are usually given stock options instead of shares. The option holder can “Early Exercise” the options issued to them before vesting is complete. To know how to early exercise the options, check out the support article here!
If the options issued to the shareholders are not exercised by them, then, you will not be able to generate 83(B) Election.
It is important to check if the options are early exercised by the shareholder before the vesting is complete.
On the dashboard, click on “Cap Table” on the left-hand side of the menu to get a drop-down menu. Here, click on “Secondary transactions” and you will reach the below page.
On this page, you will see all the secondary transactions – Exercises, Transfers, Note conversions, Repurchases, and Cancellations. Then, click on “Exercises” to check if the options are exercised by the shareholder. To know more about Eqvista’s features, check out our support articles and knowledge base. Get in touch with us right away to begin!
