> This is the same kind of logic that taxes private company stock gains on vesting even if the stock isn't sellable, if the "official" value at vest exceeds the

> This is the same kind of logic that taxes private company stock gains on vesting even if the stock isn't sellable, if the "official" value at vest exceeds the grant value. I'm not a financial specialist, but googling[0] suggests that you can, say, use restricted stock as collateral for loans, at least under some circumstances, so the situation is slightly more subtle than having (currently) worthless pieces of paper that you have to pay tax on; not that I'm saying that the IRS is necessarily right. [0] https://easystockloans.com/can-borrow-restricted-stock/ https://easystockloans.com/can-borrow-restricted-stock/