> You haven’t earned anything, but already owe someone’s yearly salary. Isn’t it great?
This is said following an example in which you exercise _and sell_. At that point, isn't the $150/share locked in as actual profit? I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that the situation you're trying to refer to happens if e.g. you leave the company and exercise but there's no sale, as opposed to after an IPO happens. What am I missing?
> You haven’t earned anything, but already owe someone’s yearly salary. Isn’t it great?
This is said following an example in which you exercise _and sell_. At that point, isn't the $150/share locked in as actual profit? I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that the situation you're trying to refer to happens if e.g. you leave the company and exercise but there's no sale, as opposed to after an IPO happens. What am I missing?
Yeah, exactly. This is about the situation where you exercise before acquisition/IPO.
In case of exercising and selling after exit, you still pay income tax on exercising and then capital gains on selling