Seattle Angel

The OBBBA impacts on QSBS and taxes for Angel investors
By Joe Wallin

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), signed into law on July 4, 2025, significantly enhances Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) benefits, potentially making startup investments more attractive. This includes raising the exclusion cap and shortening the required holding period for QSBS, which could encourage more angel investment and potentially lead to higher valuations for qualifying companies.
The OBBBA represents a significant policy shift regarding QSBS, with the potential to encourage more investment in startups and provide valuable tax benefits to investors.

Joe Wallin from Carney Law will dive into some of the details for this.

Joe Wallin focuses his practice on early-stage and growth companies.

He represents companies from inception to exit, and assists companies with among other things, formation, equity compensation, angel and venture financings, mergers and acquisitions, and other significant business transactions. He also represents investors in and acquirers of businesses and founders and executives.

Joe is a member of the Angel Capital Association’s Public Policy Advisory Council. He has been active in advocating for laws to make it less difficult for companies to raise capital. Joe wrote the first draft of Washington’s equity crowdfunding law and was an early advocate for state crowdfunding laws, and later testified in favor of the bill that ultimately became law in Washington state. He also assisted in amendments to the bill that ultimately became law.

As a part of the Seattle Angel conference, the participating Angel Investors are asked to consider their Investment thesis. As they explore the dozens of startups, they sometimes find the companies that they are selecting for the next round are not the same kind of company that would fit the thesis that they outlined in the previous meeting.

Chris Chen and David Busby are multi-time participants in the Seattle Angel Conference. They will explore the evolution of their Angel Investment thesis and how that has impacted the companies they are investing in.