Incentive stock option

Incentive stock options (ISOs), are a type of employee stock option that can be granted only to employees and confer a U.S. tax benefit. ISOs are also sometimes referred to as statutory stock options by the IRS. ISOs have a strike price, which is the price a holder must pay to purchase one share of the stock. ISOs may be issued both by public companies and private companies, with ISOs being common as a form of executive compensation for public companies, and common as a form of equity compensation in private start-up companies.

The tax benefit is that on exercise, the individual does not pay ordinary income tax nor employment taxes on the difference between the exercise price and the strike price of the shares issued (but may owe a substantial alternative minimum tax if the shares are not sold in the same year, especially if the difference between exercise price and strike price is large, on the order of $50,000 or more). Rather, if the shares are held for 1 year from the date of exercise and 2 years from the date of grant (a "qualifying disposition"), then the profit made above the strike price is taxed entirely as a long-term capital gain, at a maximum rate of 23.8% as opposed to 37%.