How the RSU planner works

2026 tax year · Checked Oct 24, 2026

Each grant becomes dated vests from its schedule, priced at today’s share price moved by your price scenario. The tax year then runs in date order, paychecks, bonus and vests together, withholding the way payroll does, and the result is set against the tax actually owed on the year’s total income.

Open the RSU planner

Step by step

1. Vest dates and shares

Each year’s percentage of a grant is spread evenly over that year’s vests (monthly, quarterly, every six months or yearly). Vests before the cliff roll into one vest on the cliff date. Shares are whole, rounded so the vests add up to the grant exactly. A grant entered as a dollar value becomes shares at its grant price.

2. Prices

Every grant of a symbol uses the one price you typed for today. Future vests move with the scenario: flat, a steady change per year, or a one-time drop on a date. Vests that already happened this year use today’s price too, so enter what they were if you know.

3. Withholding on each vest

A vest is wages on the vest date. Federal withholding is the flat supplemental rate, 22%, or 37% on supplemental pay above $1,000,000 in the year. State withholding uses the state’s supplemental rate (10.23% in California, 11.7% in New York, 8% in Oregon, 6.25% in Minnesota), a flat-tax state’s flat rate, or otherwise your marginal state rate. Social Security is 6.2% until your wages reach $184,500, Medicare 1.45%, plus 0.9% withheld above $200,000. Whole shares are sold to cover it and the rest of the sale comes back as cash.

4. Withheld against owed

Federal and state tax owed come from the brackets on salary, bonus, sign-on, vests and the ESPP discount, less pre-tax 401(k) and the standard deduction, plus Additional Medicare above $200,000 single or $250,000 joint. The gap is what paychecks and vests didn’t withhold. Three ways to close it: estimated payments split over the due dates still ahead, the safe-harbor amount (90% of this year’s tax, or 100% of last year’s, 110% if last year’s AGI was over $150,000), or extra withholding over the paychecks left this year.

5. Pay by year and offers

Each year adds base (with your raise), bonus, sign-on and the vests that land in it, then takes out federal, state and FICA tax on the total. A year where pay falls 10% or more because grants finish vesting is flagged, naming them. Offers are sized in dollars and compared over four 12-month years from today, after tax in each offer’s state, plus the 401(k) match. Leaving after a year counts the unvested stock left behind and any sign-on paid back, prorated over its payback window.

Figures used

Federal withholding on vests: 22% (37% over $1,000,000)
Social Security wage base: $184,500
Additional Medicare withheld above: $200,000
California supplemental rate: 10.23%
New York supplemental rate: 11.7%
Safe harbor: 90% this year, or 100% / 110% of last year

Assumed

One employer: Social Security and Additional Medicare are withheld as if this job were your only one.
Vests that already happened this year are valued at today’s price.
Future years use this year’s tax brackets and limits.
The ESPP discount is ordinary income in the year you buy, at the discount on the purchase price; nothing is withheld on it.
Offers use your filing status, no pre-tax 401(k), and notional shares that move with your price scenario.
Sign-on paybacks are prorated by the months left in the payback window.

Not modeled

Moving states between grant and vest (California and New York split vests by workdays).
Selling shares: capital gains, the cost basis brokers often report as $0, and Form 8949.
ESPP lookback, the $25,000 yearly limit and qualifying sales.
Stock options, private-company equity and RSUs that settle at an exit.
Other income, itemized deductions and credits.

Sources

These are estimates for education, not tax or investment advice. If a number looks wrong, report a problem with this calculation and say what you entered.