I meant that short term gains tax applies post-vesting. I'll try to make that clearer. Of course, you're right in that selling immediately incurs no additional tax, as you'd be paying short term gains tax on essentially $0.
Right, but if you sell immediately on vesting those gains will be ~0, so there's no major tax downside to selling immediately and e.g. buying an index fund instead to diversify.
> I meant that short term gains tax applies post-vesting. I'll try to make that clearer. Of course, you're right in that selling immediately incurs no additional tax, as you'd be paying short term gains tax on essentially $0.
That's still wrong. They purchase date of the RSU is on the issue date. Vesting is unrelated. You are thinking of "exercising" an option. This is not an exercise.
1. You get a RSUs. They are actual stock, but they are encumbered by the vesting schedule.
2. When they vest, you are now allowed to trade them, but your ownership start date is from #1. If you had a 180 day vest, you'd have to wait until a full year is up to avoid short-term gains, but if vesting took longer than a year, you've already held them for longer than a year.
