Consider Your Options: Get the Most from Your Equity Compensation - Softcover

Thomas, Kaye A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0979224896 ISBN 13: 9780979224898

Publisher: Fairmark Press Incorporated, 2010

Synopsis

A newer edition of this book, updated for changes in the tax laws, is now available. Are you receiving stock or options from your company? This plain language book makes it easy to understand the rules, and reveals strategies for maximizing value and minimizing taxes. It covers stock grants, nonqualified options, incentive stock options and employee stock purchase plans. This is the seventh edition of this popular title, updated for all the latest tax changes.

About this title

Review

Just about everyone has heard a story about a corporate secretary or twentysomething Microsoft employee who retired early--as a millionaire--not because of winning the lottery, but because she exercised the stock options granted by her company. The fact is, many, many working Americans have access to stock and option plans in the workplace, and although it is a bit of a stretch to assume that such plans are a guaranteed ticket to riches, equity compensation can be an intelligent means for building wealth. The trick, according to Kaye A. Thomas, is understanding and handling it properly, and this is where Consider Your Options comes in.

Thomas, a veteran tax lawyer, has written a straightforward, no-nonsense, plain-language guide to getting the maximum value from your equity compensation. He begins with the basics--what stock is and how to buy and sell it, stock grants and purchases, options in general--and proceeds with clear examinations of nonqualified and incentive stock options. From there, he leads the reader through the ins and outs of exercising stock options, vesting, and employee stock-purchase plans, with an emphasis on tax implications and financial planning (an entire section of the book, for example, deals with the Alternative Minimum Tax).

"There are certain things about stock, options, and taxes that are almost never explained because every idiot knows them," Thomas writes. "Unfortunately, there are many normal, intelligent, educated adults who don't know these things--because hardly anyone ever bothers to explain them." Now that Thomas has bothered, novices and experts alike can avoid the common mistakes and poor planning that jeopardize the highest return from these benefits. --Svenja Soldovieri

About the Author

Kaye A. Thomas is the author of several plain language books explaining taxes and investing, and maintains the highly regarded "Tax Guide for Investors" website at Fairmark.com. A tax lawyer for over 20 years, he graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1980.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fairmark Press Incorporated
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0979224896
• ISBN 13: 9780979224898
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 298