But if you move somewhere else before they vest, you earned the money on the vest date, not the grant date. My four year grant is not “earned” the day I sign it. It’s incentive for four years of work.
My reading of the tax code in California is that the tax is pro-rated over the time you were resident in CA. E.g you get a grant with a 4 year vest in California and move away after 1 year: 1st year California gets all the calculated tax, second they want 1/2, 3rd year 1/3, 4th year 1/4. Roughly like that (it’s actually counted in days).
Yes, but as far as I know that’s not the type of situation CA is generally chasing people down over. Maybe there are exceptions but I do agree with you that in typical situations it should be about when the equity vested, not when it was granted.