Enter your share grant, cliff, and vesting schedule to see how many shares vest each year, what they're worth, and what's left after withholding.
How many shares vest each year, their value at vest, and the after-tax amount.
| Year | Shares vesting | Value at vest | After-tax value |
|---|
Take the defaults on this page: 4,000 shares at $50, vesting over four years with a twelve-month cliff and quarterly vests after it.
The cliff is the part worth internalising, because it is a genuine financial edge rather than a gradual ramp. Leaving in month 11 forfeits the entire first year: $50,000 gross, gone. Leaving in month 13 keeps it. If you are considering a move and the cliff is weeks away, that timing is worth more than most salary negotiations.
RSUs are taxed as ordinary income at vest, on the market value that day, whether or not you sell. Most employers withhold by selling a portion of the shares automatically — the 22% default here matches the common US supplemental rate.
That default rate is the problem. If your marginal rate is 32% or 37%, withholding 22% leaves you owing the difference at filing time, on income you may have quietly converted into shares you still hold. A $200,000 vest under-withheld by ten points is a $20,000 bill arriving in April against stock that may since have fallen. Check what your employer withholds against your actual marginal band, and if there is a gap, plan for it rather than discover it.
The cleanest way to think about a vest: you were paid a cash bonus and immediately spent all of it on your employer's stock. Framed that way, most people would not make that purchase — it concentrates your savings in the same company that pays your salary, so a bad year hits your income and your net worth together.
Selling at vest is therefore the neutral choice, not the aggressive one, and it carries almost no tax cost: you have already been taxed at the vest price, so selling immediately realises little or no additional gain. Holding is the active decision, and it should be made deliberately rather than by default.
One further caution on the growth field. Setting an assumed annual price rise makes the four-year total look impressive, but the entire projection rests on a guess about a single stock. Run it at 0% to see the grant at today's price — that is the only figure you actually have. Use the net worth calculator to see what share of your assets this one holding represents.
Nothing vests for the first 12 months — that's the cliff. At the 1-year mark, a pro-rata chunk vests all at once, typically 25% of the total grant for a 4-year schedule. The remaining 75% then vests in equal installments — monthly, quarterly, or annually depending on your employer's plan — over the remaining 3 years.
Unvested RSUs are almost always forfeited when you leave voluntarily or are terminated for cause — vesting is specifically the mechanism that requires continued employment to earn the grant. Some companies offer accelerated vesting in an acquisition or layoff scenario, but that depends entirely on your specific grant agreement, not a general rule.
In most countries, RSUs are taxed as ordinary income at the fair market value on the vesting date, not the grant date — that's what the withholding rate above estimates. Any gain or loss after that, if you hold the shares rather than selling immediately, is typically taxed separately as a capital gain or loss when you eventually sell. Exact treatment varies significantly by country, so confirm with a tax professional for your specific situation.
More frequent vesting means smaller, more regular batches of shares becoming yours — and taxable — rather than large lump sums, which can make withholding and selling decisions smoother. But the total number of shares and total value over the full schedule is identical either way; frequency changes the shape of the payout, not the total amount.
Worked example: a grant of 4,000 shares at $50/share (a $200,000 grant), 4-year vesting with a 1-year cliff, quarterly vesting after the cliff, 0% assumed price growth: 1,000 shares (worth $50,000) vest in each of the 4 years, for a total pre-tax value of $200,000 — and $156,000 after a 22% withholding rate.
Planning what to do with vested shares? See the Investment Calculator and Tax Calculator, or work out your FIRE number.