If you want your accountancy firm to “stay ahead of the game” and offer a wide range of solutions for your clients – The Australian government has delivered a “solution” with the amendments to the Crowd Sourced Funding Legislation, which enables private companies to raise capital from the public. This legislation was passed by the Senate on 12th September 2018.
The legislation will be operational 28 days after Royal Assent, which is expected to be approximately 15th October 2018.
The amendments mean that private companies no longer need to convert to an unlisted public company to be able to utilise Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising.
This is a great win for small/medium enterprises, but it also creates a tremendous opportunity for proactive accountants to be able to service a group of clients that, in the main, are probably already clients of small/medium sized accountancy businesses in Australia.
Many accountants have been looking for ways and means to offer a broader range of commercial services – Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising will probably also involve the preparation of:
- Business Plan
- Budgets and Cashflow Forecasts
- Business Valuation
- Share Price Determination
- Crowd Sourced Funding Offer Document
- Corporate Governance Consulting
will be a great contributor as a “new income stream” for accountancy firms which accept the challenge to get involved in new services opportunities.
The main features of the legislation are:
- private companies, with less than $25 million in consolidated assets and annual revenue that have their principal place of business and a majority of directors in Australia, can utilise CSF.
- Eligible companies can raise up to $5 million in any 12-month period.
- CSF can only be raised via a licensed CSF Intermediary’s platform.
- Companies making a CSF offer must prepare a CSF Offer Document which includes prescribed minimum information.
- Retail investors have an investment limit of $10,000 per company in any 12-month period.
- Proprietary companies, with more than $3 million in CSF capital, will need to be audited.
ESS BIZTOOLS will be releasing an updated Crowd Sourced Funding Product Package, which will assist accountants to guide a client through all aspects of the Crowd Sourced Funding process, on 26th September 2018.
A special free webinar on the “New Crowd Sourced Funding Equity Raising Processes” will be presented on Thursday, 27th September 2018 at 12:30pm (AEST). To register click here.
Further information can be obtained from Peter Towers:
[email protected]
Telephone 1800 232 088
www.essbiztools.com.au
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