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Yep, you're basically rolling the dice. It gets worse if you're at a unicorn startup that doesn't exit well, because then you may have paid thousands in taxes
by bduerst 10y ago
Yep, you're basically rolling the dice.
It gets worse if you're at a unicorn startup that doesn't exit well, because then you may have paid thousands in taxes on stock that is essentially worth pennies:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/technology/when-a-unicorn-start-up-stumbles-its-employees-get-hurt.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/27/technology/when-a-unicorn-...
- encoderer 10y agoAny tax paid only for exercising options is AMT. It is refundable as AMT credits in future tax years where your conventional tax liability is less than your AMT liability. It's still bad news, and an unfortunate result for the fairly well off "little guy" in this story, but it's not as bad as it was in the dotcom bust in an era before the AMT credit existed.
- mrgordon 10y agoYep this matches my experience with unicorn stock options. It was a pain to come up with the exercise price & AMT upfront in the first place but the AMT was refunded in full the next year.