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Comment by deanmoriarty | Hacker News Reader

This is sad and surprising.

I’ve been through so many shenanigans during my previous life as a naive startup employee: paid huge amounts of AMT (which took years to recoup via AMT credits), was not offered 83b election, had to write huge checks to exercise ISO, had to pay taxes when exercising NSO, etc., but I had never heard of a company threatening to forfeit the RSU if tax is not wired to them, it’s simply wild, especially when the liquidity is so close.

If I was in your shoes and the amount was substantial, I’d consult a lawyer. I hired one to help me facilitate a secondary sale transaction contract and it cost me $4k, money well spent. Tons of them in the Bay Area.

I would truly love to know how this will end up for you.

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I am sorry that you had to go through such shenanigans. Consulting a lawyer is also what we are working on right now. Asking just in case: do you have any lawyer to recommend? Thanks!

In case you don’t have much experience working with lawyers, start your conversation with them by saying, “The outcome I want is _________________.”

If you don’t do this, the lawyer will likely talk about many options, none of which will match your desired outcome. They also generally charge by the hour so you’ll be paying to hear about things you don’t care about.

> was not offered 83b election

The 83b election mechanism is a mess, and plenty of startups don’t explain it well to their employees, but I wasn’t aware that an employer had any particular say in it. Generally, the employee makes the election by mailing the appropriate documents to the IRS.

(I’m not a lawyer. Do your own research.)

As far as I know, a company still has to allow early exercise in order for you to be able to purchase unvested options.

Correct, and this is what I originally meant.

that AMT struggle is real, painful, and needs legislative changes when it comes to ISO exercise in private companies. especially when you have to set up a payment plan for the taxes owed, which are ever increasing due to fines and penalties, while the owed credit is ever losing value due to inflation and the lost opportunity to put that money to work. and on the state tax side you should plan on not moving and losing a job in that state as if you dont have any taxable income there you are shit out of luck on getting your money back. my only advice is that if you are offered a large chunk of options without an 83b and have faith in the company, exercise as soon as possible before the value goes up.

The only legislative changes we've gotten recently were actively designed to screw startups (thank the Republicans for Section 174 and a bunch of layoffs), so don't hold your breath.

Only $4k?

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