Get Topic No. 427 Stock OptionsInternal Revenue Service - IRS.gov

Early exercising (ISOs and NSOs) Because the strike price of your stock options is usually set to the 409A valuation at the time you're granted the options, early exercising lets you exercise before the 409A valuation goes up. That way you're not making a phantom gain—and you won't owe any taxes.

What is Form 3921? Form 3921 is an IRS form that must be filed by a company when an employee has exercised an incentive stock option (ISO) in the last tax year. Form 3921 informs the IRS which shareholders received ISO compensation. You must file one form per ISO exercise.

When you exercise the option, you include, in income, the fair market value of the stock at the time you acquired it, less any amount you paid for the stock. This is ordinary wage income reported on your W2, therefore increasing your tax basis in the stock.

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.

Generally, the gains from exercising non-qualified stock options are treated as ordinary income, whereas gains from an incentive stock option can be treated either as ordinary income or can be taxed at a preferential rate, if certain requirements are met.

Qualified stock options are also called Incentive Stock Options (ISO). Profits from the exercise of Qualified stock options (QSO) are taxed at the capital gains tax rate (typically 15%), which is lower than the rate at which ordinary income is taxed.

California's employment tax treatment of the income realized from a statutory stock option is the same as the federal treatment: no income results from the grant or exercise of the stock option.

Example for a Non-Qualified Stock Option: You made $9. This $9 is taxed as wages and will show up on your W-2. Since there was a stock sale, it ALSO shows up on your 1099-B as a $9 gain. A $9 gain in two places could lead to a maximum tax rate of over 100% if reported twice.