stockoptionsta

You're talking about AMT, right?

You're right, there are situations when people can't exercise their options simply because of the high tax bill.

In this particular case, with the company I'm talking about I am fairly certain (simply because I'm doing the same calculations for myself) that if he exercised his options it would not trigger AMT.

You're right, I thought it would be clear from the context that I'm talking about employee stock options.

It seems like your experience with stock kind of proves my point and reveals the employee side of this problem — because you didn't fully understand how all these things work, and no one explained it to you — you had much different expectations.

And now, instead of incentivizing you to stay, you employer leaves you frustrated and basically incentivizes you to leave.