Greetings, and Happy Thanksgiving Weekend! 

Just in case anyone is thinking of the IRS this weekend, I am hopeful the wisdom of the group will set my mind at rest about my client who is interested in exercising significant stock options in light of the alternative minimum tax. (I am pretty sure I asked about this client once before, but the numbers have increased, and I am hoping someone has a moment to check my thinking.... 😉  .....) If I understand this correctly, he will already be in a higher tax bracket, so the alternative minimum tax doesn't come into play for his situation...... I think! 😉  

To be honest, I've never had a client want to exercise 445,000 in stock options in a single year, on top of his 200k income. He needs to ditch these options in order to pull the retirement trigger in a couple of years and will have 300k remaining for 2022 even if he exercises the above amount for 2021. I have done a mock-up with the 2020 software, and other than paying hefty taxes, the worksheets and calculations don't have any AMT on Line 11 of Form 6251. Btw, he is married. 

He really should have been liquidating these much sooner over time, but now he is in his late 50's and wants to retire early, but they need to all be gone by the time of retirement according to his employer. 

Thankful to any who have time to respond on a holiday weekend! 

Cheers, Dawn