I don't know why you'd put income in quotes. It's things you are being paid for your work. If you want to avoid the tax later, exercise the options as soon as they're available and assume the risk.
It's in quotes because you often can't liquidate the exercised shares of a private company.
So acting as if the spread is income prior to an actual sale for tax reasons is wrong (imo) and bad policy.
You're still assuming risk when exercising options even when there's a spread, that risk is only eliminated when you sell them (which is when you should get taxed).
We don't tax people on unrealized gains, why do we tax people on unrealized gains when exercising options? A reason might exist, but I haven't heard one that's made sense.
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I don't know why you'd put income in quotes. It's things you are being paid for your work. If you want to avoid the tax later, exercise the options as soon as they're available and assume the risk.
It's in quotes because you often can't liquidate the exercised shares of a private company.
So acting as if the spread is income prior to an actual sale for tax reasons is wrong (imo) and bad policy.
You're still assuming risk when exercising options even when there's a spread, that risk is only eliminated when you sell them (which is when you should get taxed).
We don't tax people on unrealized gains, why do we tax people on unrealized gains when exercising options? A reason might exist, but I haven't heard one that's made sense.