Show HN: QSBS Calculator for Company Stock

holman2 pts0 comments

QSBS Calculator — Section 1202 Under the New Rules – Signed

*]:flex-grow">

Free tool · no account needed

QSBS calculator

QSBS is Section 1202 of the tax<br>code: hold stock in a qualifying startup long enough and millions of dollars of gain come out federally tax-free,<br>which for an angel or an employee holding exercised options is usually<br>the largest tax break they'll ever claim.<br>It was rewritten in July 2025, and the version that applies to your stock depends entirely on the day you<br>bought it. Two rulebooks now run side by side. This routes your position to the right one, then tells you what your<br>gain is worth today — and what it's worth if you wait.

Updated for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act<br>Federal and state, all 50 states<br>Nothing stored, nothing sent

Acquisition date

The day you got stock, which is often not the day you think. A SAFE or note: the date it converted. Options: the date you exercised, not granted or vested. RSUs: settlement.

Expected sale date

Cost basis

What you paid — for exercised options, the strike plus any spread you already paid income tax on. Shorthand works: 100k, 1.5M.

Expected sale price

Company gross assets at issuance<br>Optional

Total assets on the company's books when your shares were issued — for options, the day you exercised. Over the ceiling and the stock never qualified at all.

Where you'll pay state tax

No state income tax on this gain<br>I'm not a US taxpayerAlabama — 5% · doesn't conform<br>Alaska — 0%<br>Arizona — 2.5%<br>Arkansas — 1.95%<br>California — 13.3% · doesn't conform<br>Colorado — 4.4%<br>Connecticut — 6.99%<br>Delaware — 6.6%<br>District of Columbia — 10.75%<br>Florida — 0%<br>Georgia — 5.39%<br>Hawaii — 7.25%<br>Idaho — 5.3%<br>Illinois — 4.95%<br>Indiana — 3%<br>Iowa — 3.8%<br>Kansas — 5.7%<br>Kentucky — 4%<br>Louisiana — 3%<br>Maine — 7.15%<br>Maryland — 5.75%<br>Massachusetts — 9%<br>Michigan — 4.25%<br>Minnesota — 10.85%<br>Mississippi — 4% · doesn't conform<br>Missouri — 4.7%<br>Montana — 4.1%<br>Nebraska — 5.2%<br>Nevada — 0%<br>New Hampshire — 0%<br>New Jersey — 10.75%<br>New Mexico — 3.54%<br>New York — 10.9%<br>North Carolina — 4.5%<br>North Dakota — 1.5%<br>Ohio — 3.5%<br>Oklahoma — 4.75%<br>Oregon — 9.9% · doesn't conform<br>Pennsylvania — 3.07% · doesn't conform<br>Rhode Island — 5.99%<br>South Carolina — 3.47%<br>South Dakota — 0%<br>Tennessee — 0%<br>Texas — 0%<br>Utah — 4.55%<br>Vermont — 8.75%<br>Virginia — 5.75%<br>Washington — 9.9%<br>West Virginia — 4.82%<br>Wisconsin — 5.36%<br>Wyoming — 0%

Doesn't conform — taxes the gain you exclude federally.

Assumptions

Filing status

Single<br>Married filing jointly<br>Married filing separately<br>Only married-filing-separately changes the math: it halves the per-issuer cap.

Apply the 3.8% net investment income tax

On by default. The NIIT applies to most investors at these gain levels, and never to gain that's excluded.

Copy a link to these numbers<br>Send it to your CPA or your advisor — it opens with every figure you entered.

Nothing you enter is saved. There's no account and no record of<br>this — your numbers live in the page and in the link you copy, and nowhere else.

New rules · post-July 4, 2025

Held about 4 years

Example scenario — put your own numbers in

75% excluded federally<br>$2,175,000 of your gain is free of federal tax

California doesn't follow along.<br>It taxes all $2,900,000 regardless, so your real bill is<br>$616,250, not $230,550.

Holding period

0%<br>February 1, 2026

50%<br>February 1, 2029

75%<br>February 1, 2030

100%

Sale

Acquired February 1, 2026<br>Selling March 1, 2030

Gain on sale

$2,900,000

Excluded federally

$2,175,000

Federally taxable

$725,000

at the 28% rate

Federal tax

$230,550

California tax

$385,700

13.3% on the full gain

Total tax

$616,250

21.25% of the gain

With no Section 1202 at all you'd owe $1,075,900, so QSBS is worth<br>$459,650<br>to you here — all of it federal.

Wait until February 1, 2031

That's 11 months longer, and it takes the exclusion<br>from 75% to 100%.

$230,550 less tax

California doesn't conform to Section 1202.<br>The federal exclusion buys you nothing at the state level: $2,900,000 is taxable<br>there at 13.3%, which is<br>$385,700, whether you hold three years or thirty.<br>California decoupled from Section 1202 in 2013 and has never come back. Every dollar the federal government exempts is fully taxable here — for most angels this is the single largest number missing from a QSBS estimate.

This assumes the rest of Section 1202 is satisfied: a domestic C corporation, stock acquired at original<br>issuance, an active qualifying business, and no disqualifying redemptions. Both tax figures use top marginal<br>rates with no brackets, deductions, credits, or local income tax — an estimate for planning, not a<br>return .

Your whole portfolio

You have more than one position

Signed tracks acquisition dates across every check you've written and tells you which positions cross the 3-, 4-, and<br>5-year lines, and when — before you sell at four years and eleven months.

Track this automatically

The 2025 rewrite

Two versions of Section 1202 are now live at once

For thirty years QSBS was a single cliff: hold five...

gain doesn qsbs section conform stock

Related Articles