[quote=no_such_reality]It’s not that bad, either sell immediately or hold for a year plus.

As for the immediate taxes, they have taxes withheld by automatically selling a portion of your holdings to cover necessary withholding. The only problem is most aren’t withholding enough based on the marginal tax bump they take due to the inflated earnings.

I don’t think bay area engineers will get hit that hard, more and more companies are doing away with RSOs for rank and file.[/quote]

Yeah, it isn’t that big of a deal. Someone threw out an income of $286K a year for a husband and wife (I think it was AN?). Those people aren’t likely to be affected much. If they put only 5% of their income into a 401K, that reduces their taxable income by $14K. Another $20K in mortgage interest and $6K a year in property taxes and their taxable income is under $250K. Even if their taxable income is $286K, that’s an increase in income taxes of $300 a month. I gotta say, if you’re making almost $300K a year and a hit of $300 a month serious affects your lifestyle, you’re doing something very wrong.