The federal JOBS Act of 2012 eased securities regulations to encourage funding of small businesses in the United States. In March 2015, the SEC issued new rules allowing private companies to raise up to $50 million in a 12-month period by exempting them from registration and reporting requirements for public companies. The SEC amended Regulation A of the JOBS Act to provide investor protections while making it easier for businesses to raise capital, though more improvements are still needed. The amendments increased the amount that could be raised through Regulation A offerings from $5 million to $50 million. Companies can now offer up to $20 million without audited financial statements or ongoing SEC reports. Those raising more must provide audited statements and annual/semiannual SEC reports

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SEC RULES: THE IMPACT OF THE 2012 JOBS ACT
The federal JOBS Act was a piece of legislation passed by Congress in 2012 with a sole
intent to encourage funding of United States small businesses by easing various securities
regulations. Titles II and III are the two most important parts which make up the equity
crowdfunding and business startup community. Recently in March 2015 the SEC issued new rules
that now enable private companies to raise as much as $50 million in capital within a 12-month
time period. The authorization was for businesses to be able to use private offerings of securities
then to allow them to be exempt from the registration and the reporting requirements that are
associated with a company going public.
This year the SEC amended Regulation A in the JOBS Act in an effort to provide strong
investor protections and allow a more workable path to raising business capital, however more
work still needs to be done. In the past 10 years we saw enormous problems with companies
avoiding the use of making private and public offerings due to disparaging and costly state
regulatory hurdles. Regulation A of the JOBS Act previously permitted that only $5 million in
offerings could be raised by a business before they were forced to be preempted by federal
preemption protections from state regulations. Today, however, the new amendments to
Regulation A in the JOBS Act allows for certain public and private offerings to be done in amounts
up to $50 million which are referred as Tier 2 offerings.
The new changes passed in March 2015 allow companies to offer up to $20 million worth
of securities to investors without having to provide audited financial statements or ongoing reports
to the SEC. Companies that wish to raise more money may do so by engaging in the Tier 2 method
which requires audited financial statements for investors and ongoing annual and semiannual
reports to the SEC that can be less detailed that those which other public companies report. This

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type of lawmaking still has room for improvement. With so many filings being required today by
almost all corporate and private companies who want to raise money in the public sector for
fundraising, a lot of the data reported is duplicated too many times and repetitively filed with the
SEC several times which in turn is not cost effective on time nor money. There are many different
ways to codify even the Regulation A amendment that was passed in March 2015 that would allow
more for a break in the entire corporate disclosing arena.
I would like to see the SEC increase the federal preemption from $50 million to $150
million in offerings. I would also like to see the SEC give more of a tax incentive to companies
under the Tier 1 offerings in the new plan that would in turn give companies a tax write-off on
dollars they raise under $20 million in their private or initial public offerings. These same
requirements could also be made at year-end and various times during the quarters in a much
quicker way that would allow a company to make several public offerings in one single quarter.
While a new amendment such as the one outlined above would streamline the Regulation A
process, there are still many other viable alternatives the SEC could use that would help both the
agency and businesses compile equity offerings information without long-entailed steps currently
in place for private and public offerings.