Hacker News Reader

Comment by theli0nheart | Hacker News Reader

> 2) Exercise at $100 [1], spending $1 to buy. Tax on $99 short term capital gains owed, or ~$35.

This makes no sense. Simply exercising an option is not a taxable event--you're just trading a contract for shares of a stock. There's no money going into your bank account.

Furthermore, you aren't taxed short-term capital gains when you haven't realized a profit. You'd need to exercise AND sell at $100 / share for those gains to be taxable. The correct taxable amount in this scenario would be $9 / share ($1 spent, $10 earned, net gains = $9).

[1] Assuming you meant "exercise at $100" here.

View on HN

It may not make sense but that's the tax law. You will owe tax on unrealized gain in this scenario -- as others have said it's due to AMT. Check with your accountant.

This is why 83(b) elections are so important. If your employer allows you to early exercise stock you can purchase your options immediately, prior to vesting, and pay tax at that time. Because your option purchase price will be equal to the market value (409A) the net tax will be $0. The 83(b) election is how you declare you've paid the tax at exercise.

Sorry, but you are spreading dangerous misinformation. https://blog.wealthfront.com/exercise-stock-options-taxes/

You're right. I've asked the moderators to remove the comment. I was totally wrong here. Thanks for the link.

Well, you're right in the sense that it's absurd. :) But unfortunately it's also the law.

It may make no sense, but the IRS disagrees with you. Exercising is a taxable event.

That's only for ISOs, which are essentially deferred compensation. Getting paid in ISOs is functionally equivalent to taking an 83(b) election in that you're trading a risk of potential loss for the upside of only needing to pay long term capital gains tax.

You are confused.

Exercise of incentive stock options (ISOs) is not a taxable event, although you may get hit with the AMT. Exercise of non-qualified options (NSOs) is a taxable event. For both types of options, the sale of the stocks at a later time is taxable.

^ - this.

Excercising an option is taxable under the AMT.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com