[rbrcurtis]

Yes but if they give you RSUs, which is probably the case in a publicly traded company, then typically >1/3rd are sold by etrade or whoever to pay those taxes. IE you don't really have to deal with this.

Now you DO have to worry about the taxes on capital gains. I recently had to deal with this because I sold my RSUs on the day they vested, thought the 3rd that auto-sold covered me, but didn't realize the .88 cents that the stock rose in the hour before I sold the stock qualified as cap gains and I needed to deal with declaring it. Short term cap gains in this situation basically is just your standard tax rate.

If you don't need the money and you think the company's stock is going to do decently over the next year then holding on to your shares for a year to get to long term cap gains isn't necessarily a bad idea. Depends on the company.