★★★★★
It was a great opportunity to understand my financial blind spots. She made sure the plan for my family would ensure we were all well cared for, across every scenario in life.
Troy K.
Senior Engineer · Bay Area
For Tech Executives, Engineers & Directors
MicroTax for the people
building the future
and paying for it
Senior engineers, directors, and executives at Nvidia, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, Palantir, Arista, Cisco, and high-growth pre-IPO companies. Where the equity is complex, the marginal rate is brutal, and the default tax handling is wrong.
A senior engineer with $300K of RSUs vesting this year is, on autopilot, almost guaranteed to be under-withheld by tens of thousands of dollars, and to discover it in April when there's nothing left to do about it.
The 22% default supplemental withholding rate was calibrated for a population earning $50K–$200K. Applied to a senior engineer whose marginal rate is closer to 50%, it is systematically wrong by tens of thousands of dollars per year. That's the single most common tax problem in Silicon Valley, and the most consistently misunderstood. MicroTax exists to catch it before April, not explain it after.
Section 01 · Audience
Who this serves
Senior engineers (L6+), engineering managers, directors, and executives at the major public technology companies, Nvidia, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Oracle, Palantir, Arista, Cisco, and their peers, and at high-growth Series-D-through-pre-IPO firms. Combined income typically $300K–$1.5M+, with a meaningful portion arriving as equity rather than salary.
The defining feature is not the title. It is the structure of compensation: equity that materially exceeds base salary, vesting on a quarterly schedule, taxed at vest, often subject to lock-up periods, frequently held with concentration risk, and almost never coordinated with the rest of the financial plan.
This is the audience the U.S. tax code is hardest on, and the one most poorly served by the traditional CPA model, which sees the W-2 in February with all the year's withholding decisions already locked in.
Section 02 · Diagnostic
What's typically going wrong
Most of these are not unusual. Each is well-documented, well-understood, and routinely missed, because nobody on the client's team has the mandate or the time to fix them.
Seven recurring problems in this segment
The 22% RSU under-withholding trap.
Default supplemental rate of 22% applied to vests, while actual marginal rate sits closer to 50% for Bay Area earners. The April surprise is structural, not accidental. Read the full breakdown →
ESPP qualifying-disposition left to instinct.
Held for the wrong period, the 15% discount is taxed as ordinary income instead of long-term capital gains. The right decision depends on numbers most people never run.
ISO/AMT exposure unmodelled.
Exercising ISOs without modelling the AMT impact has produced bills in excess of cash savings for many private-company employees. The trigger is the spread between exercise price and fair-market-value, even though no cash has changed hands.
QSBS §1202 not preserved.
Pre-IPO equity holders frequently miss qualification rules, five-year hold, original issuance, qualifying business, and lose what can be the single most valuable line item in a future liquidity event. Up to $10M of capital gains, free of federal tax, undone by a single mis-step.
HSA empty.
Triple-tax-advantaged. Almost universally unfunded in this client population. The only vehicle in the entire U.S. code where contributions, growth, and qualified withdrawals are all tax-free.
Backdoor Roth and Mega Backdoor Roth missed.
No income cap on either. But the Mega Backdoor requires plan-administrator permission for in-plan Roth conversion or after-tax contributions, and most engineers never check whether their plan supports it.
No tax-free retirement vehicle.
401(k) capped. IRA blocked by income limits. Brokerage account fully taxable. Nothing in the plan is producing retirement income outside the taxable system, which is exactly what the §7702 TFRA is designed to solve.
Section 03 · The change
What changes under a MicroTax engagement
Eight specific moves, sequenced through the F.A.S.T. Steps method, Foundational shelters first, the §7702 layer last.
1
Year-start projection & marginal-rate modelling
Vest schedule modelled against actual marginal rate. Estimated quarterly payments sized to the gap. April surprise eliminated; underpayment penalties avoided.
2
Maximization of every available shelter
401(k) max, Mega Backdoor Roth where the plan permits, HSA fully funded, Backdoor Roth executed, dependent care and lesser-known shelters reviewed.
3
RSU sell-vs-hold framework
Concentration risk, tax cost, and personal liquidity reconciled into a clear sell schedule rather than an ad-hoc decision at each vest.
4
ESPP qualifying-disposition modelling
Per-offering-period analysis of whether to qualify or disqualify, sized to share-price trajectory and the holder's bracket.
5
ISO/AMT planning
For private-company holders: exercise-timing strategies, AMT modelling, partial-disqualification approaches, and cash-flow planning against the spread.
6
QSBS §1202 preservation
For pre-IPO holders: the single highest-leverage planning move for those facing a liquidity event in the next several years. Up to $10M of gains, federally tax-free.
7
§7702 TFRA layered on top
Once foundational and advanced shelters are full, the §7702 vehicle is added for tax-free retirement income outside the qualified-plan ceiling. What a TFRA actually is →
8
Trust & estate design ahead of any pre-IPO event
Once the deal closes, the structuring window shuts. Pre-event trust design, gifting strategies, and entity placement done before the liquidity moment, not after.
Section 04 · Outcomes
Indicative year-one outcomes
$40K+
Avg. year-one tax recovery for senior tech professionals
22% → 50%
Withholding gap closed before April, not discovered after
$10M
QSBS §1202 exemption ceiling preserved for pre-IPO holders
Illustrative, based on the published average across MicroTax's full book; individual results vary and are not guaranteed. Pre-IPO QSBS outcomes are dependent on holding-period satisfaction and qualifying-business status.
Section 05 · A client voice
From an engineer who'd already filed
Section 06 · Go deeper
Related strategies for tech professionals
Service · Flagship
§7702 Tax-Free Retirement, properly explained
The rules, the math, the trade-offs, and who the TFRA actually suits. The vehicle that produces retirement income outside the qualified-plan ceiling, a natural fit for high earners with no Roth eligibility. Read the explainer →
Methodology
The VFO Opportunity Engine™
How we systematically scan a return to surface $10K–$50K+ of dormant opportunity across 200+ strategies. Built for the complexity of equity compensation. See the methodology →
Article · Equity Compensation
The 22% trap, explained in full
Why the default RSU withholding rate is systematically wrong for senior tech professionals, and the mechanism that produces an $84,000 April surprise on $300K of vests. Read the article →