Author Archives: James Graves

Raising equity capital for a startup properly can be challenging, but it is the first step before starting a successful business. Read below more information. Introduction If you are raising money capital from investors for your startup, no matter how you do it, there are rules you must be careful to follow. If you doContinue reading “Raising Equity Capital for Your Startup: Securities Law Exemptions Ranked by Ease of Use”

Our federal tax system, the public policy, makes it unnecessarily difficult for private companies to share stock with their employees, contractors, advisors, and other service providers. The problem lies in our tax law. The Problem with Issuing Shares to Workers Why doesn’t your employer bonus your shares? Because the IRS treats any share bonus asContinue reading “Public Policy: Remove Taxes on Sharing Stock With Workers”

We are frequently asked by clients to review Non-Disclosure Agreements (“NDAs”) in various contexts. It goes without saying that you should be careful of what kind of NDA you sign and not be afraid to negotiate any terms you do not like.  Nondisclosure or confidentiality agreements come in a wide variety of forms and styles,Continue reading “How to Use and Review Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs)”

A common question we receive when working with limited liability companies taxed as partnerships under Subchapter K of the federal income tax law (“LLCs”) is, can the company grant stock options to its employees and independent contractors, even though the company isn’t a state law corporation (and is in fact taxed as a partnership underContinue reading “Profits Interests in a Limited Liability Company – What Are They?”

We wrote about the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) component of the CARES Act (“Act”) last week and how it expanded who is eligible for Small Business Administration (“SBA”) loans in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  One of its general qualifications is that the company must have no more than 500 employees.    One issue we areContinue reading “CARES Act: The Affiliation Rules and How They Could Affect Your Eligibility for a PPP Loan”

Joe and I wrote a post last year about how to form a Washington corporation, and the importance of doing away with statutory preemptive rights held by shareholders. If a company did not to do this, all of its shareholders would automatically have the opportunity to participate pro rata in a subsequent issuance of anyContinue reading “Update to Statutory Preemptive Rights in Washington Corporations”

The SEC recently solicited the public’s views on its regulations on private offerings, issuing the Concept Release on Harmonization of Securities Offering on June 18, 2019. Our group worked hard to write a fifteen page response letter to the Commission containing our suggestions and overall thoughts. See below! Comments to SEC Concept Release Re FileContinue reading “SEC Concept Release Letter”