Its "sign-on payments" now - so essentially you get a salary augmentation for your first 2 years (and its applied to each paycheck) so you don't need to pay anything back when you leave.

Think this depends on the amount - my sign-on bonus worked as you described, but some others I know got a lump sum (they were more junior and getting a smaller bonus).

At Amazon sign on bonuses are paid over the first 24month, so there is no need to pay back anything.

Is that a signing bonus or a agreement to get paid less in two years?

It is because they have a different vesting schedule from most companies. Instead of 25% of your stock annually with a 1 year cliff, they pay out 5%, 15%, 40%, 40%. So once your signing bonus is up, your shares ramp up.

Is there a meaningful difference?

To me a signing bonus is a upfront payment for you to agree to join. Paying it over two years is just a regular bonus paid biweekly. Time value of money makes the lump sum a lot more valuable, especially in these inflationary times.

Sure, a single lump sum bonus might bump you in a higher tax bracket, whereas the bonus paid over 2 years may keep you in a lower bracket.

That's not really that big a deal. Sure, you might pay lower taxes if the bonus is split between two years, but the difference on tax would surely pale in comparison to typical gains in the stock market or other investment.

Depends on your agreement. Mine was a lump sum up front for the first year and a retention bonus plus stocks for year two. With strictly rsus for the last two years.

You have to pay them back pro rated. If you leave after 10 months you'd only have to pay back 2/12 of the bonus. At least that was the case when I started at Amazon (admittedly almost a decade ago).

If you get a signing bonus that you pay taxes on, then have to return part of it the following year, do you get to deduct it from taxes?

Yes, as long as the amount you repaid exceeds $3,000.

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p525#en_US_2020_publink1000...

I stayed over 5 years, so I never had to repay any bonus. I can't be sure what the tax implications would be of it, but based on what I know about taxes (more than most, less than an expert) I suspect it would count against your taxable income in the year when you had to pay it back.

Interesting, I had two amazon offers and no signing bonus was like that. They essentially just prorated it out over the first two years as extra monthly income to be equivalent to the stock you would get in the later two years.

Amazon signing bonuses are there so they can compete on offers while retaining the internal culture metric of max salary.

Amazon gives their signing bonus out monthly over the course of the year to offset the lack of equity in the first few years, so I don't think you'd have to pay it back in this case.

It depends. Companies can ask for (or demand) the signing bonus back. But some won't. I've heard of it going either way - it's luck of the draw.

I had to pay back relocation once. Incredibly painful, but holy shit was it worth it to get away from that place.