Will I necessarily have to pay tax on exercising it? The long term or short term capital gains tax will only take care of selling price - exercise price which would be the same in my case I believe

To answer this question - yes . Tax is due in the day you exercise and not when you sell it. So make sure never to exercise unless you have a liquidity event in sight

Project Manager

Analyst

You will have two taxation points . When you exercise you will be taxed under the heads salary . This is based on your tax bracket after considering the difference between your exercise price and market value date of exercise. This will be added to your income as salary . Then depending upon the time you have held it you will be taxed under short term or long term capital gains when you sell it.

How can I get salary from ex-employer? I am technically no longer with the company so as per the income tax law, we no longer have N employee employer relationship

It’s a fair question . But tax laws work differently. Look at it like this. You get your f&f after a month or something two after you leave your job. This is not exactly similar but works like this. This benefit was conferred to you as an employee by your employer. So it is taxed as a salary from employer just received on a later date .

I’ve not exercised my ESOPs from my previous employer. I am waiting for the company to go public. I quit the company in 2021. What will my tax be if I exercise and sell my stocks at the time of IPO...

Welcome to Indian Startups's Private Community

I’ve not exercised my ESOPs from my previous employer. I am waiting for the company to go public. I quit the company in 2021. What will my tax be if I exercise and sell my stocks at the time of IPO? How much tax can I save if I buy a property?

ESOPs taxation

ESOPs taxation- Grapevine

So say one has 100 ESOPs which a person exercised and converted to say 1000 shares  in say Jan 2024

Now if IPO happens in aug 2024, what will be the long term capital gains tax rate for these shares.

Will the tax rate change if one sells them say in Feb 2025, sept 2025 , Feb 2028 considering tax policy, tax rates to remain unchanged?

How's are captial gains taxed post IPO sell off?

UX/UI Designer

What happens to unexercised ESOP after IPO? I got to know that ESOP gets taxed at the time of exercise so it could lead to a huge financial burden. Also, is it possible to defer taxes after exercising of esops?

Unexercised option after IPO

Software Engineer

Hi, Say a Series B (US) funded startup gives me 3000 shares which are worth $5/share. It follows the usual vesting period of 4 years. Now assume 4 years have passed and all the 3000 shares are vested but the company hasn't gone IPO. 

Here are my quesions

- When exercising US stocks in India, what is the % of withholding tax I should pay?
- Say if I exercised all the shares and if I decide to leave the company do I get to keep those exercised shares with me forever?

I prefer answers from people who have exercised ESOPs before. I don't want answers like "It depends, Talk to your HR or CA". Appreciate any inputs.

Question on US based ESOPs in India

Welcome to Personal Finance's Private Community

So i got the ESOPs in my current company and now they want me to exercise it as it is mandatory to exercise the ESOP in a certain period of time. What will happen once I exercise it?? Also i am thinking of quitting the company so what will happen to the exercised ESOP if I leave the company??

Please give any resources to understand the complete what, how and when of the ESOPs and general summary regarding it

Can anyone please explain to me the ESOP thing??

Frontend Engineer

Primarily, my question targets startups which went ipo where you may joined when it was a private company and later it went public and you liquidates it. 
- will your esop units gets multiplied before ipo?
- will exercise price gets increased before ipo?
- what about the tax?
- are there any unknowns and nuances involved which you were not aware of and later realised?
I hold esops in a startup and want to understand how this works during an IPO

How much did you earned through esops via IPO?

I had a very basic doubt.
For people who've exercised their stock options or have had some similar experience with this in the past, what's best way to limit the tax liability?

My company is registered in the US - would i have to pay taxes to both the governments?

Thanks in advance and have a great day ahead!

Tax liability for vested stock options

Please share the knowledge you've about these two!

ESOPs vs RSUs

Product Owner

I have recently left Tekion and was considering executing my ESOPs. For executing my ESOPs I need to pay around $3.5 per esop to the company. Should I convert my esops to equity? Am looking for some advice from the folks who might have done this in the past.

Tekion ESOPs Execution

Hey 👋  
  
 I have worked with a lot of my clients who own ESOPs. 
  
 Some points to consider in your case: 
 1. Tekion is not a listed company. Finding a buyer for the shares will be difficult. Considering this, Are you comfortable holding the shares till IPO? 
  
 2. Tax: You will need to pay tax at the time of exercising ESOPs. Again, are you comfortable with paying tax upfront?  
  
 3. If you wish to sell shares through brokers, check if company has right of first refusal. This way, you can a good deal and sell the shares to company (prior to IPO).

Software Developer

Product Manager

I had gotten a few shares of a company I used to work for. Unfortunately the time period to exercise the contract is just 90 days after I leave so that means either I have to lose all the shares since I didn't complete the whole vesting schedule or buy it from them!

I wanted to understand how the tax works in a case like this! The company is still not traded so I can't sell the shares but have to buy it and hold it until IPO!

Tax on ESOPs

Founder

Welcome to Business Roles's Private Community

One of my past companies is expected to go public soon and I'll be receive a bulk of money in esops, what are some of the best practises to be noted to manage the quantum ?

Best practises to manage incoming cash via ESOPs ?

Swiggy is planning to go public soon and has offered to exercise our ESOPs at a certain valuation. This is not a buyback, so we will have to pay taxes on the exercised shares. Is it worth exercising now or should I wait for the IPO? I will only gain from this if the IPO price is higher than the exercise price, otherwise I will end up paying more tax. Did Zomato have a similar offer before its IPO? If so, what was the best option for its employees?

What did Zomato employees did?

Where did you work and how much money did you make?

Asking as it looks like a lot of promise of ESOPs and wealth creation has failed employees in this bloodbath slow growth, layoffs, and job changes.

"ESOPs made me rich af"

I have had ESOPS in 2 companies 
#1 - company got acquired ..I got 45 Lacs IN ESOP ...thats 1.5X of my last annualized salary  ( so additional salary for 18 months) 
#2 - Company became unicorn ... I quit and company bought my ESOPs . Got 2 Cr
That is 3X of my annualized salary

Company 1 - I had joined at very early stage ; Company 2 - I joined at mid-stage

How do you understand that Esops alloted in ctc are good enough?
Do companies have them fixed as percentage of ctc (ex. 30% of ctc) or how does it work?

What are the questions i can ask to get a better understanding of the Esops?
One would be current valuation, last buyback time, what else?

Is there any good resource to understand this?

How to evaluate ESOPs?

Truths about ESOP 101 

After working in multiple fast growth startup’s and having been part of multiple buybacks as well as being in the startup ecosystem for a decade I want to put to bear my pov about creating wealth through ESOP. 

Like any other randomised event, ESOP also follows Pareto principle which means a very small number of people within the company ever make sizable wealth that they elevate to the top 0.1% of the country. 

The Pareto also applies with companies; significantly small minority of companies in India have employee friendly policies which enables an employee to create wealth. 

Most startup’s have dark patterns within their esop policy which either locks you in for insufferable durations or forces you to pay exorbitant taxes to gain the right to exercise your esops when you are leaving the company. 

Survivorship bias plays a huge role in enabling the narrative that esop is a great wealth generating tool leading to rude awakening for an employee after they join a company. 

This doesn’t mean you can’t make wealth, it just means don’t get carried away by narratives and take preventable errors in your career. 

Always talk to multiple people in startup’s and ask relevant questions to understand esop policies better. 

Like everything else optimising only for esop for wealth creation will mostly not result in it.

ESOPs taxation

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