Public offerings offer private companies the chance to make huge gains in expansion, but it also exposes them to rules and regulation they weren’t required to follow as private companies. As such, it is crucial for businesses to understand all the possible risks and pitfalls before making the leap into the public market.
If your company is thinking of an IPO or not, creating a best-practice checklist should be the first step in designdataroom.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-ipo-process ensuring that you’re prepared for the process. A checklist for an IPO should be able to cover everything from stakeholder alignment and due diligence to analysis and collection of financial data. A thorough checklist helps you to identify and close the gaps in your company’s condition and where it should be before ringing that IPO bell.
It’s a good idea to consult a tax professional when you plan to go public. This will assist you in understanding the different kinds of equity compensation, and how they affect your tax cost. You can then prepare according to your needs. If you have made an 83b) election, you may be facing a significant increase in taxable ordinary income if you go public. If you’re a shareholder with incentive stock options (ISOs), you should consider the possibility that you will be subject to an alternative minimum tax.
An IPO preparation checklist should also provide information regarding the requirements for compliance with regulations that are associated with an IPO, including the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) registration and disclosure rules. Your ipo checklist should include all the steps required to prepare and submit your Draft Registration Statement/S-1 which includes submissions of both EDGAR files and iXBRL examples.