What your vest leaves you.
Vested shares are paid like a bonus: withholding comes out on the day, usually by selling shares. See what’s taken and how many shares stay yours.
Estimated at vest
- Vest value
- $50,000.00
- Federal withholding (22%)
- −$11,000.00
- State (CA, 9.3%)
- −$4,650.00
- Medicare (1.45%)
- −$725.00
- Social Security (6.2%)
- −$3,100.00
- What you keep
- $30,525.00
Sell-to-cover
- Shares sold to cover the withholding
- 78
- Shares that stay yours
- 122
Most plans sell whole shares, so a little more than the withholding is sold and the rest comes back as cash. Your plan may instead hold back shares or ask you to pay cash.
How a vest is taxed
On the vest date, the shares’ value is pay, taxed like a bonus. Most employers withhold federal income tax at a flat 22%, whatever your W-4 says; past $1 million of supplemental pay in a calendar year, the excess must be withheld at 37%.
- State at a rough top rate for each state at high incomes (city taxes aren’t included).
- Medicare at 1.45% of all of it, and Additional Medicare at 0.9% on pay past $200,000 in the year.
- Social Security at 6.2%, only until your pay for the year reaches the wage base ($184,500 in 2026, $192,300 in 2027). That’s why the pay before the vest matters.
Withholding isn’t your tax bill
If your top federal bracket is 32%, 35% or 37%, 22% withheld is short of the tax on the vest, and the gap is due in April. The RSUs at vest playbook walks through it, and the bonus take-home calculator does the same for a cash bonus.
An estimate, not tax advice. It uses flat rates and doesn’t know your full tax picture; check your pay stub or a tax professional before you act on it.
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RichDue puts every vest on your timeline with what it pays after withholding, and plans the tax gap before April.