If you have employee stock options, you’ve probably spent time considering the absolute best time to exercise those options -- and from there, whether you should sell or hold your shares. Answering the question of “when” -- when to exercise, and when to sell -- is...
Category: incentive stock options
How and Why to Exercise Your Incentive Stock Options Early in the Calendar Year
Ready to exercise your incentive stock options (ISOs)? Then you have many strategies to consider for how and when to take the next steps. Potential plans to implement include exercising well before the ISOs are set to expire, exercising as expiration nears, or...
6 Reasons to Exercise Your Incentive Stock Options When the Price Is Down
No one likes to see a stock they own go down in value. When we buy stock, we hope the price rises so we can earn a profit on our purchase. It’s bad enough, then, when our share prices fall instead. But what’s potentially even worse? Seeing those falling stock prices...
4 Taxes to Plan for When You Sell Your Incentive Stock Options
If you try and look up information to learn more about your incentive stock options, most of what you’ll find addresses what happens when you exercise your options -- but doesn’t go much farther than that. You may already know that when you exercise your incentive...
How and When Are Incentive Stock Options Taxed
Incentive stock options are a form of employee compensation that allows you to participate in the appreciating value of a company's stock price. A type of stock option that comes with potentially complicated tax scenarios. Similar to non-qualified stock options,...
How to Exercise Incentive Stock Options to the AMT Crossover Point
Finding the best time and best strategy to exercise incentive stock options is difficult. Competing considerations on income tax, investment planning, and financial planning make it difficult to address the best time to exercise incentive stock options (ISOs) with a...
5 Basics I Wish Everyone Knew About Employee Stock Options
There is no easy way around it, employee stock options are complicated. And depending on the type of stock options you have, how many you have, other types of employee stock options you own -- along with all your other specific financial planning needs --...
4 Ways to Lower the Alternative Minimum Tax when you Exercise Incentive Stock Options
When you exercise and hold incentive stock options, it’s very possible that you will be subject to the alternative minimum tax (AMT). This part of the tax code gets complex, making it difficult to understand. One way to think of the AMT is a pre-payment of income tax...
7 Steps To Handle Employee Stock Options During Market Volatility
If you own company stock or employee stock options, it’s possible that you have experienced market volatility and have seen firsthand how a quick change in the stock price can materially impact the value of your stock options. A rising stock price can quickly change the value of your stock options positively. Potentially to such an effect that it can create a concentrated equity position that should be evaluated.
Incentive Stock Options and The Alternative Minimum Tax
If you have incentive stock options, you’ve likely heard the term alternative minimum tax, or AMT. But what is the AMT, and how is it calculated? It’s a type of income tax, but very different than what you may be used to paying. Typically, the calculation of your total income tax due is subject to the rules and regulations of the regular tax law.
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Hi, I'm Daniel Zajac, CFP®, EA
I write about equity compensation and employee stock options in a way that is easy to understand.
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