On April 5, the Division of Corporate Finance of the Securities and Exchange Commission released two new compliance and disclosure interpretations (“C&DIs”) regarding Regulation Crowdfunding.  Regulation Crowdfunding was adopted in 2015 in order to implement the provisions of Title III of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act of 2012 that exempt certain crowdfunding transactions from registration under the Securities Act of 1933.

The first new C&DI addresses the disclosure requirements of Rule 201, and specifically the related party disclosure requirements of Rule 201(r).  Rule 201(r) requires that in connection with a crowdfunding offering, a crowdfunding issuer must disclose and describe any related party transactions that are currently proposed or that occurred since the beginning of the issuer’s last fiscal year in which the amount involved is greater than 5% of the total amount that the issuer raised under the crowdfunding exemption over the previous 12 months, including the amount proposed to be raised in the current offering.

C&DI Question 201.02 clarified that for purposes of this requirement, crowdfunding issuers should calculate the 5% threshold for disclosure of related party transactions based on the target offering amount plus the amount already raised during the previous 12 months, even if the issuer indicates that it will accept offering proceeds in excess of the target offering amount. In other words, the possibility of accepting additional offering proceeds in excess of the target offering amount should be disregarded for purposes of calculating the 5% threshold for disclosure.

The second C&DI released by the Division of Corporate Finance clarifies Rule 202(b)(2), which provides that an issuer is no longer required to comply with the ongoing reporting requirements of Rule 202 once the issuer has filed at least one annual report pursuant to Rule 202 and has fewer than 300 shareholders of record.

C&DI Question 202.01 provides that, when calculating the number of shareholders of record for purposes of Rule 202(b)(2), the issuer is required to count all shareholders of the same class of securities issued in the crowdfunding offering, even if some of those shareholders did not obtain such securities in connection with the crowdfunding offering.

The full text of the two new C&DIs described above, along with all previously released C&DIs regarding Regulation Crowfunding, can be found on the SEC’s website.  In addition, an overview of the Regulation Crowdfunding rules can be found in this earlier Emerging Companies Insider post.

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