Hi everyone! I could really use some help here. I’m trying to wrap my head around what my best plan is, and I’m totally overwhelmed by the amount of info and all the specialized language involved with even what I thought were simple questions about stock stuff.
Here’s as simple a breakdown as I can provide - please ask questions if any of this is vague or if I unwittingly left something important out!
- I started with my company nearly 4 years ago, and I was offered a stock option agreement in which I was granted 10,000 shares of common stock
- The shares in my original grant were given an ‘exercise price’ of $1.19 each
- A few months ago (before the IPO), my company did a “reverse split,” so my 10,000 shares became 6,666 shares (I’m not sure if this means that my ‘exercise price’ also went *up* by 30%, if that makes sense)
- Our post-IPO lock-up period ends in mid-September
- The last of my original batch of shares will finish vesting in mid-October
So, questions:
What is my best strategy for selling these shares? Assume that for personal reasons I’m going to sell them as soon as it’s advisable, what is my best approach here?
Do I need to wait a year and a day from when the last few shares vest, to avoid the highest taxes? Or does that "year and a day" advice even apply if my stock agreement will be 4 years old by the time the lock-up period ends?
Most important: How do I calculate my ‘take home’ profit from the sale? Some of the math seems easy enough (6,666 shares X market value of each share on sell-date, then subtract 6,666 X my exercise price and whatever fees ETrade imposes), but when it’s time to figure out the taxes I immediately get lost.
Thanks for any help or guidance here - I feel like I’m so close to understanding my best path here, but the taxes and optimal timing are just totally escaping me.
Submitted May 17, 2018 at 12:12AM by stock_dummy https://ift.tt/2k1pKMM
