Vesting and Phantom Shares

Mike23

I work for a private company that has given us bonuses in the form of phantom shares that we can take out when we retire/leave. They vest over a number of years and the value goes up or down with the value of the company. My thought was to set it up as a brokerage account and update the value of the shares each quarter when we get our statements. However, I don't see anything that would cover the vesting part. Any better ideas or thoughts? Thanks

Tom Young

You might look at the "Grant Employee Stock Option" action to see if that would work.  This plan is a non-statutory employee share scheme so I'd use the non-qualified stock option as the plan type.  This action allows for vesting over time and you can use $.000001 as the "exercise price" since Quicken doesn't allow for a $0 exercise price.

Presumably you'll be recognizing "compensation" as the stock vests, or actually receiving compensation in the form of cash if that's how your plan settles these thing, so each "exercise" which you'll enter as the stock vests, will calculate that for you.

Mike23

Thanks. Yes, it settles in cash. I guess I earn it when it vests but I think it only becomes taxable when I take it out.

Tom Young

Generally you earn the money, receive the money and have taxes withheld simultaneously.