Comment by beau_g

Perhaps this only happened to me from the difference in market fluctuations in the day or two between vest and the sale (this happened to be in 2020 when my company was on a heater). Or maybe etrade allows you to sell shares from a different grant than the one vesting to cover and I didn't realize? In either case in 2020 it seemed like I got some rich guys W2 instead of mine and most of my sales were just sell to cover. I find it ultimately more simple to do the tax payment in cash rather than also involving a stock sale on top. Interesting you company mandates sell to cover, or do you just mean that is the default?