What nobody talks about is the very good reason why employers give only 90 days after leaving a company to exercise options is that there is also a tax liabilit

What nobody talks about is the very good reason why employers give only 90 days after leaving a company to exercise options is that there is also a tax liability to the company for an employee exercising an option. Usually employer has to pay employment tax, now if you have a lot of options still unexercised from former employees and your stock has appreciated a lot the company can be on the hook for a lot of taxes. The company prefers only being on the hook for current employees. The true solution is to give stock options that can be exercised early as long as the value of the stock is very low such that an employee's hiring bonus after tax could cover the cost. There is no tax owed by the employee since he purchased shares with no gain and then you vest outright stock. Once the stock value goes up it would be best to grant RSUs of convertible notes that convert into stock.