If nothing else, it's more pain when it comes time to file my taxes. With autosell and RSUs vesting monthly, filling out my stock sales takes as long as the rest of my return combined.

This is a problem for your accountant :)

People learn this the hard way. These companies that pay you in 50% stock should probably have some checkbox on the employment agreement that says "I agree to get a licensed accountant to do my taxes every year, and I realize that I will be paying for this out of pocket."

The most complex tax disaster I got into cost $700 to resolve, and that is a tiny tiny fraction of what they pay you in stock, so just do it.

I’m not a tax expert. but if I’m understanding the directions on Schedule D and form 8949 correctly, if everything on your 1099-B was reported to the IRS (box A or D checked) and you don’t need to make any adjustment to basis, you can just put the grand total on Schedule D, without reporting each transaction on Form 8949.

Turbo Tax seems to take this approach, at least when I filed last year.

I've never worked for a company where the cost basis for RSUs manages to be reported accurately. I've had to correct them every single time.

This isn't a small company problem either - both Google and Microsoft had this issue (though only on ESPP shares at MS)

RSU are non-covered shares, so you can't just fill out the total on schedule D (box a or d won't be checked)

You can do the above and also send the IRS a copy of your 1099-B too, along with your 1040. I don't know if you can do that and e-file.

It's worth noting that this also only works if your 1099-B from the RSU broker are correct. In the past decade, that's about a 50-50 shot for me.

I don't have to do anything, I get a single form (1099? Don't remember) per source with gains and that's it. Don't even have to send in those forms with the return anymore. Is there some number where you have to fill out stock sales?

Now that I'm more than halfway through my working life, my walls are papered with worthless equity grants. I've never seen a penny and I'm under no illusions that I ever will. I no longer consider them at all when negotiating compensation. I interpret their very mention as a trick to get me to devalue myself.

That's different from a publicly traded company RSU, where on each vest date you are employed you will get a % of your initial grant (+ refreshers) - tax withholding distributed to your brokerage account.

It accounts for more than 50% of my total compensation.

How many of these grants were for RSUs in a publicly traded company?

startup equity grants are lottery tickets and must be treated as such. Public equity grants are as good as cash

Vesting is an anti-competitive practice for retaining laborers and we should be shaming all companies that practice it.

Vesting has upsides. Your company essentially fronts you free capital on the stipulation that you invest it in the company's stock with specific lockups.

Essentially it comes down to two choices: do you think cash over the course of your vest cycle will perform better than the company's stock. If you believe cash will do better, then RSUs are worse than cash bonuses. Otherwise the RSUs do better.

Vesting can happen linearly and be no different from a more volatile salary.

To be fair, paying someone a volatile salary (for example, mostly or all commission) should be banned as well.

For what reason?

Because it creates instability in someone's life and easily causes folks to work for hours just to have no paycheck if they didn't sell a car (for example). Another example is a cleaning service: I knew someone that worked for one. She got paid a percentage of the cost - she had a schedule, but folks cancelled and other such things. It wound up that she was stuck at work in between jobs, couldn't go home, yet wasn't getting paid.

In other words, it creates a job environment that easily exploits people.

I'm not absolutely offended by bonuses and commissions, mind you, but base pay realistically should make up the majority to most of the salary and be fairly consistent from week to week. Pay based on tips can do the same thing (and you can cause this to happen to tipped employees with scheduling).

you can just not apply to work there if that is your opinion. plenty of other people have different opinion. no need to shame, this cancerous cancel culture must die