Articles on Incentive Stock Options — AMT implications, exercise timing, ISO vs NSO tax comparisons, and strategies to minimize your tax bill when exercising.
32 articles
New Jersey's Gross Income Tax runs from 1.4% to 10.75% across eight brackets. Here's where equity-comp households actually land, how RSU vesting and ISO gains are taxed, and why NJ's lack of a flat supplemental rate matters for withholding.
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Oregon's income tax tops out at 9.9%, and that top rate begins at just $125,000. Its optional 8% supplemental withholding under-withholds RSU income, so equity earners owe Oregon at filing. Here's how the brackets and the gap work.
Bunching an ISO exercise or a big share sale into one year stacks your income into the top bracket and past the AMT break-even. Here's how to optimize equity taxes across multiple years by flattening income instead.
A decision-stage map of every form your equity comp touches: the W-2 that already carries vest and exercise income, Form 8949 and Schedule D for sales, and Form 3922 and 6251 for ESPP and ISO — plus the basis fix that stops double taxation.
AMT is driven by the ISO bargain element, so the way to avoid triggering it is to control that number — exercise to your break-even, spread exercises across years, and time disqualifying sales. Here are the levers in dollars.
Four quiet leaks — under-withholding, the broker basis trap, bunched income, and unplanned AMT — drain thousands a year from equity-comp holders who never see them coming. Here's how much each costs, and how to plug them.
Optimize ISO exercise timing across 3-5 years
