Tom Davison and Liam Hurley
UPDATED! The time right after you have completed your tax return is ideal for big-picture financial planning. You can more accurately project your income and likely tax situation for the remainder of this year and the next, including AMT risk and capital-loss carry-forwards, to develop your strategy.
Alan Ungar
The tax reductions of the past few years have brought both good and bad news for holders of incentive stock options. While you may have lower capital gains rates when you hold the shares long enough after exercise, it is harder to avoid the risks of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) and to fully recover any AMT credit.
Bruce Brumberg and Lynnette Khalfani
UPDATED! This tax return season has the potential to be more confusing than most if you sold stock last year. You must now file the new IRS Form 8949 along with the revised Schedule D. This change stems from the expansion of the information that brokers must report to you on IRS Form 1099-B. Read this article for tips on these and other crucial tax return topics.
The myStockOptions.com Editorial Team & Contributors
Tax reporting with incentive stock options (ISOs) can be tricky. Learn what you need to report on your return at each stage of your ISO's life cycle.
Bruce Brumberg and Matt Simon
Until fairly recently, alternative minimum tax (AMT) credits could be applied against your tax bill only in years when your regular tax liability exceeded your AMT liability. However, Congress now allows a faster rate for using AMT credits that are more than three years old. This article explains what you need to know about this "refundable" AMT credit, which is available through 2012.
Kaye A. Thomas
Special rules for old unused AMT credits, first available in 2007, were drastically revised for the tax years 2008 through 2012. This is the first of two articles on the refundable AMT credit, which provides a way for many people to use more AMT credits than they could under the regular rules.
Kaye A. Thomas
Special rules for old unused AMT credits, first available in 2007, were drastically revised for the tax years 2008 through 2012. This is the second of two articles on the refundable AMT credit, which provides a way for many people to use more AMT credits than they could under the regular rules.
Stanley Trotta with Robert Gordon
With tax increases in mind, now may be a good time to re-evaluate your current financial-planning strategy. Should you take action with stock options now or wait until new rates apply? Part 3 looks at incentive stock options.
Kaye Thomas
A trap awaits those who, after selling shares from exercised ISOs to avoid AMT, want to buy back the stock.
Tom Davison
Even under President Barack Obama, the Bush administration's 2003 tax cuts and later extensions (now through 2012) continue to affect tax strategies for NQSOs, ISOs, and restricted stock.
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Running parallel to the regular tax system, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) was designed to require extremely wealthy people to pay their fair share of taxes when credits and deductions could otherwise reduce or eliminate their tax liabilities. However, the reach of the AMT has expanded over time to hit middle-income people it was never intended to tax...
Experts suggest several strategies for you to consider when you exercise ISOs and are concerned about triggering the alternative minimum tax. For example, near year-end or at the beginning of the year, you can...
When you are intermittently subject to the alternative minimum tax (AMT), tax advisors suggest different planning ideas on shifting income and deductions. You have much less flexibility in your planning when you project paying AMT for the next several tax years. Strategies for reducing the likelihood of triggering the AMT, and for minimizing the amount of AMT, are...
One strategy for minimizing AMT is to spread out the exercise of ISOs over...
To keep middle-income people from being unfairly hit by the alternative minimum tax, Congress has enacted temporary relief during each of the past few years. These include legislative "patches" to extend and increase the income exemption amounts that apply to the AMT...
It's not that simple. AMT requires you to account separately for ISO shares not only at exercise but also when the shares are sold. If you paid AMT as a result of exercising ISOs, your sale of the ISO shares provides an opportunity for you to recover...
Yes. The AMT from your ISO exercises might be so high this year that you can also exercise NQSOs and essentially not pay any tax on the spread...
The AMT rules and forms baffle even tax professionals. You can better understand the process by...
This depends on how long ago you exercised the ISOs that triggered the alternative minimum tax. The 2008 version of the new AMT credit law, discussed below, is most favorable for you. First, however, some background on the law may be helpful...
The AMT system is complicated. Broadly, it starts by taking your adjusted gross income, subtracts your itemized deductions, makes certain negative and positive adjustments, and includes certain tax items called tax "preferences." The resulting amount...
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Tax errors can be costly! Don't draw unwanted attention from the IRS. Our Tax Center explains and illustrates the tax rules for sales of company stock, W-2s, withholding, estimated taxes, AMT, and more.
