Create an account

Calculators

Equity Compensation Calculator

See the 2026 federal tax, payroll tax and state tax on a restricted stock vest, a stock option exercise or an employee stock purchase plan sale. The calculator shows what you keep and how the tax changes with the number of shares or the share price.

Stock pay arrives with a tax bill, and the bill depends on the type of award.

Take a single filer earning $100,000 who receives 1,000 shares at $50. A restricted stock vest adds $50,000 of wages and costs $17,889 in tax, or 35.8% of the vest value. A stock option exercise on the same shares with a $10 exercise price adds $40,000 of wages and costs $14,224.

Incentive stock options work differently. A single filer earning $200,000 exercises 10,000 shares at $5 when the price is $20 and holds them. The alternative minimum tax bill is $31,148, and no share has been sold. Exercise half the shares and the bill drops to $11,340.

Pick your award type below and enter your own numbers. Have a tax professional check the result before you exercise or sell.

Your income

$

Your salary and every other taxable dollar before this event. The calculator treats it as wages. It assumes the standard deduction.

%

One flat rate applied to the event. Enter 0 if your state has no income tax.

Your equity event

Type of award
$
$

The vest value is wages. Sell later and the change in price is a capital gain or loss.

Your tax on this event

TaxAmount

How each award is taxed

  • RSU. The value of the shares on the vest date is wages. It carries income tax, Social Security, Medicare and any state tax. A later sale adds a capital gain or loss.
  • NSO. The gap between the share price and your exercise price is wages in the exercise year. A later sale adds a capital gain or loss measured from the exercise-date price.
  • ISO. Exercising creates no regular income tax and no payroll tax. If you hold the shares past year end, the gap counts toward the alternative minimum tax. A qualifying sale gives long-term capital gain on the whole profit. An early sale makes part of the profit ordinary income, up to the gap at exercise.
  • ESPP. A qualifying sale makes the smaller of your discount at the offering start or your actual profit ordinary income. An early sale makes the gap at purchase ordinary income. The rest is capital gain or loss.
See how company stock fits your retirement plan

How this is calculated

The calculator taxes your other income alone, then taxes it again with the event added. The difference is the tax this event causes. It uses the 2026 federal brackets, standard deductions, capital gain thresholds and alternative minimum tax figures the IRS published in Revenue Procedure 2025-32, with capital gains stacked on top of ordinary income.

  • Social Security tax is 6.2 percent of wages up to $184,500 and Medicare is 1.45 percent. Additional Medicare tax of 0.9 percent applies to wages above $200,000, or $250,000 if married filing jointly and $125,000 if married filing separately.
  • The 3.8 percent net investment income tax applies to capital gains above the same dollar thresholds.
  • ISO and ESPP shares carry no Social Security or Medicare tax. NSO and RSU income does.
  • Your state tax is the flat rate you enter, applied to the income from this event.
  • Capital losses give no benefit here. Sales on a different day, other investment income, itemized deductions, credits and the alternative minimum tax credit carryforward are not modeled. Your employer’s withholding is not compared to your tax.
  • The calculator uses 2026 law as published through Revenue Procedure 2025-32. Later changes are not included.

Sources

Hypothetical results. Results are hypothetical in nature and are estimates, not a tax return or a guarantee. Your actual tax depends on facts this calculator does not see. This calculator is educational software from PureLogicOS. It does not provide individualized investment, tax, legal or accounting advice. Have your CPA or another qualified professional check these values before you act on them.