can someone @uber explain more of whats going on here and how to avoid similar fate? i presume the issue is specific to rsus and not options? wouldnt this issue affect most all uber staff? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1233699
Lyft employees in the same boat, don't think there's a lawsuit though.
I don’t think lyft accelerated their date unilaterally in violation of their rsu agreement, so I’m unsure of what you’re talking about
Right, so no lawsuit. Still taxed at $72, heavily underwitheld, and unable to sell until $50.
They deserve a bailout!
Just read the article. Basically Income is taxed at stock at 45$. But sick values is only 32. Depending on how much was withheld, you might owe upto 22.5$ per stock in taxes now.
The issue is that Uber 1) only withheld 22% taxes on up to $1 million in stock comp and 2) price dropped since IPO. #1 is perfectly legal but combined with #2 and a 6 month lockup period makes for some high tax bills. There were a bunch of presentations before the IPO where employees were warned about this. Not sure how people can be so surprised. If stock had gone up, the story would be the opposite.
So these people crying about 50k bill have got 500k+ stocks vested last year ? Assuming average tax rate of 35% minus the original 22% which Uber already deducted
No, they were warned that RSUs were taxed at the time of delivery not at the time of sale in those meetings. They only got one notification in the form of a written doc saying that Uber decided to accelerate the date unilaterally against what the agreements said.
Sorry to hear this, but what did you expect from Uber? You thought engineers are safe from getting screwed?
Same thing happened at Lyft, lost hundred thousand dollars. Could have been easily avoided if they had a lockup expiration trigger
Did this apply to people with options?
This is sad!! Did Uber allow cashless exercise?
I think you’re misunderstanding the issue. They changed the delivery date unilaterally, against what the agreements in all of the RSU docs said, which we accepted when we took these jobs. That is unusual and definitely not market. They only informed employees of this huge change 4 days pre ipo.
Sounds like they screwed up the language in some of the employment contracts, good luck with the suit
I think this is a bs lawsuit. Employees always knew there is a risk associated with lock up period. It's unfortunate that Uber stock went down after lock up expiration due to pandemic. They should sell some stocks to cover the tax bill and hold onto rest of them hoping it would rise again. This is how it is for all start up/ipo RSUs. Don't see why they have to be different.
Of course there's risk the stock goes down during lockup, but there shouldn't be tax amount risk. The tax risk could have been avoided
Curious to see some actual numbers here
It pushed me into a whole nother tax bracket and I got hosed in the face with a $100k bill