No, you (generally) pay income tax on the current value when you receive it, and then capital gains on any change in value.
Essentially, if I pay you £15k for some services, you pay income tax on that £15k. If I buy you a car for £15k, taxman still wants £15k. Same with equity.
How it can work is that you can be granted shares and pay the taxes at time of granting (which for a founder is zero), but might not be nice for an employee.
You can also give an employee options, and this can get complicated (single or double vest).
But in general, for any equity instrument in a stock plan, you get charged income tax at one stage, then capital gains at a later stage, and you can trade off when you want to trigger each. In this case, employer has gone for a model where income tax is deferred as late as possible.
Essentially, if I pay you £15k for some services, you pay income tax on that £15k. If I buy you a car for £15k, taxman still wants £15k. Same with equity.
How it can work is that you can be granted shares and pay the taxes at time of granting (which for a founder is zero), but might not be nice for an employee.
You can also give an employee options, and this can get complicated (single or double vest).
But in general, for any equity instrument in a stock plan, you get charged income tax at one stage, then capital gains at a later stage, and you can trade off when you want to trigger each. In this case, employer has gone for a model where income tax is deferred as late as possible.