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Options and RSUs gain value the day you pay for the underlying stocks, not the day you're allowed to buy a stock which could later in time become worthless. don't forget they're aimed at employees so they can share the value created by the company they work within, and that these employees will pay taxes in time when they extract any value from their companies

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If they don't have any value, then you shouldn't have any problem with them going away. You obviously consider them valuable, or else you wouldn't be defending them.

Indeed the right to buy a stock is valuable, but as an employee / the state you should postpone the taxation to when the value is actually retrieved by the person you tax. It's a bit like saying 'You're house is worth X, you should be taxed regarding this price, even if you don't have yet made any profit'

You literally described property taxes just now.

Don't they gain value at both times? I mean, stock options are something people pay for.

The intrinsic-value of the options is required to be zero (strike price = FMV) at the time of grant. As for the time-value, how exactly would you calculate that for tax purposes?

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