Stock options give you the right to buy shares of a particular stock at a specific price. The tricky part about reporting stock options on your taxes is that there are many different types of options, with varying tax implications.
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The underlying principle behind the taxation of stock options is that if you receive income, you will pay tax. Whether that income is considered a capital gain or ordinary income can affect how much tax you owe when you exercise your stock options.
There are two main types of stock options:
The two main types of stock options you might receive from your employer are:
These employer stock options are often awarded at a discount or a fixed price to buy stock in the company. While both types of options are often used as bonus or reward payments to employees, they carry different tax implications.
The good news is that regardless of the type of option you are awarded, you usually won't face any tax consequences at the time you receive the option.
No matter how many statutory or non-statutory stock options you receive, you typically don't have to report them when you file your taxes until you exercise those options, unless the option is actively traded on an established market or its value can be readily determined. This exception is rare but does happen at times.
When you exercise an option, you agree to pay the price specified by the option for shares of stock, also called the award, strike, or exercise price.
For example, if you exercise the option to buy 100 shares of IBM stock at $150/share, at the time of exercise you'll effectively exchange your option for 100 shares of IBM stock, and you'll no longer have the right to buy additional IBM shares at $150/share.
If you exercise a non-statutory option for IBM at $150/share and the current market value is $160/share, you'll pay tax on the $10/share difference ($160 - $150 = $10).
Since you'll have to exercise your option through your employer, your employer will usually report the amount of your income on line 1 of your Form W-2 as ordinary wages or salary and the income will be included when you file your tax return.
When you sell stock you've acquired via the exercise of any type of option, you might face additional taxes.
You should report a long-term gain on Schedule D of Form 1040. A short-term gain will typically appear in box 1 of your W-2 as ordinary income, and you should file it as wages on Form 1040.
If you buy or sell a stock option in the open market, the taxation rules are similar to options you receive from an employer. When you buy an open-market option, you're not responsible for reporting any information on your tax return.
However, when you sell an option—or the stock you acquired by exercising the option—you must report the profit or loss on Schedule D of your Form 1040.
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