Built by Engineers, for Engineers

When I got my first ISO grant as a software engineer at Amazon, I had no idea what I was getting into. I exercised what I thought was a reasonable number of shares — and nearly triggered a $60K Alternative Minimum Tax bill. Every calculator I found online was either a dumbed-down estimate or gated behind a $1,500 CPA consultation. For a problem this common in tech, that felt broken.

So I did what any engineer would do: I built a spreadsheet. Not a simple one — I implemented IRS Form 6251 line by line, cross-referencing every constant against official IRS publications. When I shared it with colleagues, they all had the same reaction: “Where was this when I was making my exercise decisions?” That spreadsheet became EquityTax.

Today, EquityTax handles ISOs, RSUs, 83(b) elections, IPO lock-up planning, and multi-year exercise strategies that optimize your tax bill over 5 years — the exact scenarios where tech employees lose the most money to avoidable tax surprises. It's the tool I wished existed before I made my first exercise decision.