Employee Stock Plan Taxes and Tax Filing: Understanding Taxes on Stock Plans | Fidelity (2024)

FAQs

Employee Stock Plan Taxes and Tax Filing: Understanding Taxes on Stock Plans | Fidelity? ›

In most stock plans,1 your award is considered income and subject to ordinary income, Social Security, and Medicare taxes. Your company withholds these taxes for you and reports these amounts on your Form W-2 for tax-filing purposes.

Form W-2 Your W-2 includes the taxable income from your ESPP. This form is provided by your employer. Form 3922 Form 3922 has details about your ESPP purchase that will help you report the income from your sales of ESPP stock. This form is provided by your employer.

They can only report the unadjusted basis — what the employee actually paid. To avoid double taxation, the employee must use Form 8949. The information needed to make this adjustment will probably be in supplemental materials that come with your 1099-B.

You have taxable income or deductible loss when you sell the stock you bought by exercising the option. You generally treat this amount as a capital gain or loss. However, if you don't meet special holding period requirements, you'll have to treat income from the sale as ordinary income.

Your income or loss is the difference between the amount you paid for the stock (the purchase price) and the amount you receive when you sell it. You generally treat this amount as capital gain or loss, but you may also have ordinary income to report. You must account for and report this sale on your tax return.

You are exercising your rights under the ESPP. You have bought some stock. So far so good. When you sell the stock, the discount that you received when you bought the stock is generally considered additional compensation to you, so you have to pay taxes on it as regular income.

If your ESPP stock is sold 12 months or less after the purchase date, any appreciation beyond the discount will be taxed as a short-term capital gain, subject to ordinary income tax rates ranging from 0% to 37% federal.

ESPP Tax Rules for Qualifying Dispositions

A qualifying disposition occurs when you sell your shares at least one year from the purchase date and at least two years from the offering date. If you trigger a qualifying disposition, you may be subject to ordinary income tax and/or long-term capital gains tax.

Common mistakes to avoid include double-counting income, misreporting the cost basis of stock sales, and miscalculating taxes on ESPP income. If you sold shares during 2023, before mid-February your brokerage will send you IRS Form 1099-B, which brokers usually reformat into their own substitute statement.

Double taxation refers to income tax being paid twice on the same source of income. This can occur when income is taxed at both the corporate level and the personal level, as in the case of stock dividends.

What happens if you don't report stocks on taxes? ›

If you don't report the cost basis, the IRS just assumes that the basis is $0 and so the stock's sale proceeds are fully taxable, maybe even at a higher short-term rate. The IRS may think you owe thousands or even tens of thousands more in taxes and wonder why you haven't paid up.

If you buy a stock and the value of it goes up, you do not have to pay taxes on those gains every year. You only pay when you “realize” the gain by selling the shares.

A common though sometimes complicated task is converting employee stock options into cash. You must first exercise the options, then sell them. That means buying shares of company stock at the exercise price.

In a word: yes. If you sold any investments, your broker will be providing you with a 1099-B. This is the form you'll use to fill in Schedule D on your tax return. The beauty of this is that it's generally plug-and-play.

When do you have to pay taxes on stocks? Taxes on stocks and dividends are incurred in the tax year when the stock is sold or the dividend payment is made. By mid-February of the following year, you'll get paperwork from your brokerage that will help you tally up your total gains and losses to determine the tax bill.

No capital gains? Your claimed capital losses will come off your taxable income, reducing your tax bill. Your maximum net capital loss in any tax year is $3,000. The IRS limits your net loss to $3,000 (for individuals and married filing jointly) or $1,500 (for married filing separately).

If you sold stock, you'll receive Form 1099-B and the Supplemental Information form during the tax season. The information on your 1099-B is reported to the IRS, but the Supplemental Information form includes adjustments to a capital gain or loss necessary to avoid overpaying taxes.

If you sold any stock units to cover taxes, this information is included on Form W-2 as well. Review Boxes 12 and 14 as they list any income on Form W-2 related to your employee stock options.

If you itemize your deductions, you may be able to claim a deduction for your investment interest expenses. Investment interest expense is the interest paid on money borrowed to purchase taxable investments. This includes margin loans for buying stock in your brokerage account.