AMT-tax-buying-vested-non-public-shares-tax

Paid my IRS bill last week for my 2022 Gong Taxes I owed $152,479.36 — financially devastating to say the least And nooo — I didn’t take home 761K last year to owe that much What happened?? I bought my vested shares when I quit the company in July and it triggered AMT tax If you don’t know what Alternative Minimum Tax is — you’re not alone Most people getting into tech for the first time or working for a ‘unicorn’ don’t know either. Here’s the #hottake (Private): Who’s responsibility is it to financially educate employees — so they’re aware of AMT and not stuck with a 152K tax bill? Should the employer be responsible…. Should it be the employee?? Should it be both?? My tax situation was 100% avoidable had I been educated But you don’t know what you don’t know until someone teaches you…. Here’s me tying to teach you: AMT tax was triggered in my situation because I bought 2 years worth of vested shares when I quit. My series A strike price was pennies and the FMV (Fair Market Value) was very HIGH…. So the IRS wanted tax paid on this “Gain” I had no idea that I even had to pay taxes on my vested shares… I thought that once the company went public and I actually made money — then I would owe my tax Nope nope — not how it works Extra context to my situation: Gong is not public and I didn’t see a dollar on this “Gain” What I experienced was — Phantom Income — a type of “financial gain” that hasn't been paid out yet but you’re still responsible for paying taxes on it The IRS is taxing me on what I paid for each share vs. what they see the value of each share being worth AMT was originally designed to tax high-income taxpayers who used the regular tax system to pay little or no tax — NOT — SDRs who worked their tails off to make something for themself And yes — the hope is that Gong goes public or gets acquired one day and I actually make money on the shares but… having to find 152K in the meantime to pay a bill is devastating and beyond stressful. - linked in post