There's a reason jobs at promising startups are in often in high demand: The employee equity is lucrative, and stock options could make you rich. We've all heard the splashy stories about the overnight millionaires created when tech giants go public. (See the most recent example: SpaceX.)
But taxes on those stock options can be complicated, and getting it wrong can have consequences — like the kind with a lot of zeros on the end. Understanding how options are taxed could help you avoid costly mistakes.
🤓Nerdy Tip
If you’re working out a plan for exercising stock options, consider finding a financial advisor with expertise in employee equity. That person could help you think through the timing, risks and benefits relevant to your unique financial situation.How employee stock options are taxed
How your employee stock options are taxed depends on the type of stock option you have.
- Nonqualified stock options (NSOs) are stock options that companies can issue to both employees and non-employees. NSOs are often taxed at a higher rate than incentive stock options. But their tax treatment is pretty straightforward: you pay ordinary income tax when you exercise the options and capital gains tax if you then later sell the shares for a profit.
- Incentive stock options (ISOs) are stock options that companies issue only to employees. They enjoy several tax benefits, but that tends to make the strategy more complicated. ISOs aren’t taxed when they’re granted, when they vest or when they’re exercised. Instead, you pay tax when you sell your shares. If you meet the holding-time requirements, you may pay capital gains tax rates instead of potentially less favorable ordinary income tax rates.
» MORE: How employee stock options work
NSOs | ISOs | |
|---|---|---|
When they’re granted | Not taxed. | Not taxed. |
When they’re exercised | You may owe ordinary income taxes on the “bargain element,” which is the difference between the market price of the shares and the strike price. You’ll also be responsible for Medicare and Social Security taxes. Employers typically withhold and pay the taxes to the IRS on your behalf. | Ordinary income taxes are deferred. But you might trigger alternative minimum tax (AMT). |
When they’re sold | Any profit you make when selling your shares is subject to capital gains tax rates. Whether you pay short- or long-term capital gains tax rates depends on how long you own the shares. |
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Ask an advisor: Special considerations for stock option taxes
Understanding stock option taxes is one thing. Knowing how to navigate them strategically takes careful planning, and maybe some expert help.
“NSOs are inherently simple. There’s no choice apart from the choice of when to exercise,” says James Bashall, a financial advisor and chief operating officer with NerdWallet Wealth Partners. “With ISOs, there’s so much more strategy involved. That’s where the advisor becomes important.”
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Here are two considerations when developing your stock option tax strategy.
1. Planning for AMT
When you exercise stock options, the discount you receive — also called the bargain element — is counted as income in the eyes of the IRS. That extra income may be large enough that you could owe alternative minimum tax or AMT, before you’ve sold a single share or gotten a dollar of cash.
AMT is a tax system that runs parallel to the standard tax system. It has different tax rates that are intended to ensure certain high-earning taxpayers pay at least a minimum level of income tax. Their income taxes are calculated under regular tax rules and under AMT rules, and they owe whichever resulting tax bill is higher.
Pre-IPO employees can face considerable AMT risk. Although exercising ISOs before their employer goes public can lock in a low strike price and start the clock toward better capital gains tax treatment, if the difference between the strike price and the share value is large, the AMT exposure can be substantial.
For example, if you exercise 10,000 stock options that have a $5 strike price but the company shares are valued at $35, the bargain element is $30 a share, or $300,000. Depending on your filing status and your other income, a significant part of that $300,000 could be subject to AMT even if you haven’t sold any shares, and even if you can’t sell any shares until your lockup expires (which could be six months after the stock starts trading) .
This AMT liability “crystallizes” on December 31 of the year you exercise. So if you exercise your options late in the year and then watch the stock price fall during the lockup period, you could be in a situation where you may owe AMT on a gain that doesn’t even really exist anymore.
There are a number of strategies for navigating AMT and preventing surprises. For example, Bashall says, you could calculate how many shares you can exercise in the year without incurring AMT. That may mean you exercise your options in batches over the course of several years. The right strategy depends on your specific income (all of it, not just from your options), as well as the number of options you hold and how close the IPO is.
You may pay less tax if you hold your shares for at least a year after the exercise date and for at least two years after the grant date. But holding your shares isn’t always the best strategy, and avoiding taxes isn’t always the best goal, Bashall says.
Here are other factors to think through when weighing the pros and cons of holding your shares for a year or more.
- Managing cash flow: If exercising your options triggers a tax bill, you may need to come up with a hefty sum of cash. You’ll need to weigh the pros and cons of paying those taxes out of pocket or using the proceeds from selling some of your stock (if that option is available).
- Risk of lost value: If the company stock price drops, the value your options have when you exercise them could disappear. “Potentially exercising options and immediately selling [the shares] — you’re locking in the gain instead of running the risk of it turning into a loss over the next 12 months,” Bashall says.
- Concentrated exposure: If too much of your wealth is tied to the performance of a single company — your employer — you run the risk of losing it all if it tanks. Financial advisors generally encourage investors to diversify their portfolios and avoid having concentrated exposure in a single stock.
» MORE: When to exercise stock options
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- 1.IRS. Publication 15-B, Employer's Tax Guide to Fringe Benefits. Accessed Jun 18, 2026.
- 2.National Archive Code of Federal Regulations. § 1.423-1. Accessed Jun 18, 2026.
- 3.IRS.gov. Topic no. 556, Alternative Minimum Tax. Accessed Jun 18, 2026.
- 4.IRS.gov. Instructions for Form 6251 . Accessed Jun 18, 2026.
