Sort of. With restricted stock, the stock is not transferable from the company to you until certain conditions are met. The grant has been made, but the share

Sort of. With restricted stock, the stock is not transferable from the company to you until certain conditions are met. The grant has been made, but the shares aren't yours until they vest (conditions met). I believe (I'm not a tax lawyer) that you pay taxes on the fair market value of the stock as of the vesting date, but you can elect to pay those taxes on the date of the grant instead, based on the value of those shares on that date (with the risk being that if the shares never vest, you don't get your tax money back). Then there are RSUs - restricted stock units. This is more like an IOU in that the company promises now to grant you a block of restricted stock at some point in the future. It's to manage taxation, and again, that's less my area. A good explanation is here: http://avc.com/2010/11/employee-equity-restricted-stock-and-rsus/ http://avc.com/2010/11/employee-equity-restricted-stock-and-...