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Employer Stock: Employer Stock Purchase Plans (ESPPs)

This article describes how to enter ESPP purchases in your Plan.

Nancy Gates avatar
Written by Nancy Gates
Updated over a year ago

Qualified Employer Stock Purchase Plans

These instructions refer to employer stock purchases that qualify for the Capital Gain tax treatment and allow you to account for the Capital Gain tax liability on the sale of the stock.

There is a small amount of ordinary income tax that isn’t accounted for with this method, but this is the closest method currently available.

When you buy stock under an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) the purchases are withheld from after-tax income.

STEP 1: Navigate to to My Plan > Income > Income for Work and press add a job ➕. Give the job a descriptive name, “ACE Employee,” for example. Enter your monthly gross income.

STEP 2: Navigate to to My Plan > Income > Income for Work

  • Press the pencil icon ✎ to edit the work income

  • Press "Add a Contribution"

  • When asked "How are contributions made?" press "It's deducted from my paycheck"

  • When asked "Do you make contributions to any accounts directly from your paycheck?" Press "Contribution to another type of account"

  • Enter the the net value you compute for the employee stock purchase plan (ESPP) as a contribution to an after-tax account with the Capital Gains tax treatment. You can use an existing account or create a new after-tax account with the Capital Gains tax treatment.

STEP 3: If you want to account for Capital Gains tax on the sale of the stock at a later date, follow these steps:

  • Navigate to My Plan > Money Flows> Transfers

  • Add a transfer ➕ to an after tax savings account with an Ordinary Income tax treatment on the date you plan to to sell the stock. This transaction will incur long term Capital Gains tax but further withdrawals from the savings account will not.

There is a small amount of ordinary income tax that isn’t accounted for with this method, but this is the closest method currently available.

STEP 4: If you receive extra shares, you may wish to add those to the account as a Windfall. Head over to My Plan > Income > Windfalls

  • Add ➕ a windfall

  • When asked "Which account do you want to model a contribution to?" select the new ESPP account

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