Free RSU tax calculator and equity comp guides for U.S. employees.

The IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service lists September 15, 2026 as the third quarterly estimated tax due date for calendar-year taxpayers. The due date is easy to ignore when you have a W-2 job and assume payroll handled everything. RSU vests break that assumption because supplemental withholding on the vest is a prepayment at a flat rate, not a calculation of your full-year marginal tax.

If you vested in March or June, pull the vest confirmation and compare federal withheld on that event to what your bracket would imply once salary, bonus, and the vest are stacked. The gap is often several thousand dollars for households already in the 32% or 35% federal bracket before the equity income lands.

You can close the gap with a September payment through IRS Direct Pay or EFTPS, or by increasing W-4 withholding on salary for the rest of the year. Both routes feed the same annual reconciliation on Form 1040. Keep confirmation numbers with your vest PDFs.

State estimated payments are separate where your state taxes wages. A federal payment does not satisfy California, New York, or other state balances if payroll under-withheld there too.

TechCrunch reported large Oracle layoffs in May 2026 where many workers lost unvested RSUs without acceleration. That employment story becomes a tax story the moment you still hold vested shares, receive a final vest on your last W-2, or sell stock to build cash after notice.

Grant agreements explain forfeiture. Tax rules explain what already vested. Shares sitting in your brokerage after termination still produce 1099-B sales with the usual zero-basis problem if you cannot prove vest FMV later.

Most people remember to roll 401(k)s and COBRA paperwork. Fewer export equity tax summaries, vest confirmations, and sell-to-cover trade confirms before SSO access disappears. Those PDFs are what you use when a broker reports $0 cost basis in February.

A final vest on your termination-year W-2 is wage income in Box 1 like any other vest. Severance on the same W-2 is a different pay category with its own withholding. Keep the two separate in your spreadsheet so you do not double-count income or mix basis logic.

Brokers issue initial 1099-B packages in February, then send corrected forms when supplemental lot statements arrive from employers or when cost basis feeds update. FINRA's investor guidance on tax forms reminds filers that corrected forms should be used on the return that reports the sale.

RSU sales are a common reason for summer revisions. Payroll reports vest wages to you; the broker may not receive basis until an equity admin file posts. If you filed in April using $0 basis because that was what the first 1099-B showed, a July corrected form with blank basis is not an improvement — you still adjust on Form 8949 using vest FMV from your confirmation.

If the correction changes proceeds or adds a missing sell-to-cover line from a prior vest, compare old and new forms side by side. Amended returns take time; waiting until October extension season without fixing a known error accrues interest on the underpayment.

Keep every version of the 1099-B PDF. The IRS automated matching sees proceeds; your job is to document basis the broker never had.

Multistate payroll sourcing is boring until a vest lands six figures on one paycheck. Employers often update home address for benefits quickly but lag on state tax withholding accounts. You notice when Box 16 on the W-2 does not match where you lived for most of the year.

RSU vest income flows through the same state wage boxes as salary. There is no separate RSU state line. If payroll still maps you to California while you established Texas residency in May, you may see CA withholding on a September vest even though TX has no wage tax for typical residents.

Fixing it is a payroll ticket, not a broker change. Bring your move date, vest schedule, and prior pay stubs showing state lines. Part-year returns may still be required even after payroll correction because withholding and sourcing rules are not identical.

Remote hires accepting offers in lower-tax states should confirm withholding before the next quarterly vest, not after the W-2 arrives in January.