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Personally happy to see that the new tax code appears to reduce the inequality between staff and executives, with regard to compensation and taxation. I'm a strong advocate for leveling the playing field for EVERYONE; because it eliminates (or reduces to the extent possible) the ability to negotiate these special options for "deferred" compensation.... for which the vast majority of us will never qualify.

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This doesn't do that at all. It punishes employees 100-1000 of late stage startups with unknown, perhaps bankrupting retroactive taxes. The entire 409a system was designed to protect exactly that group of employee after the dot-com crash, and this undoes it.

Founders and execs likely will be fully vested before their options are worth anything at all (figure 8 years from founding to IPO, 4 years to vest).

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