Insights on tax, equity, and building wealth

Stripe: Navigating a Tender Offer in 2023

These are the seven areas of your financial picture that you need to consider optimizing before year end, particularly after yet another tumultuous year.

Tax Planning for Startup Founders and Employees

While it may seem premature to plan for reducing taxes as you're just getting off the ground, there are a few key tax-related decisions that are worth taking right from the beginning for many startups and their founders, given the high growth potential.

Choosing the Right Tax Service for Your Unique Needs

When it comes to taxes on equity compensation, there’s a lot to navigate. From Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) to Incentive Stock Options (ISOs), and everything in between, everyone’s situation is unique, and it can be hard to find relevant, personalized information. Traditional tax firms tend to have rigid business models that make it difficult for clients looking for one-off expert consultations or even ongoing planning services. This is where Harness Tax comes in: to provide clients with easily accessible, ad-hoc support for equity questions, as well as to help them over time through ongoing relationships with expert tax professionals who can craft a comprehensive, personalized tax strategy.

Switching Jobs and Your Startup Equity: What You Need to Know

If you're a startup employee, chances are you earn stock options or grants as part of your compensation package. It's a popular employee retention tactic, and one that, if done right, can be an excellent catalyst for generating significant wealth. But what happens when you switch jobs, either on your own accord or from a layoff or termination? Do you get to keep all your equity, or will you have to leave it all on the table? And if you get to keep it, what will it cost you? In this article, we'll go into all that and more, including:

State Residency & Tax Planning for Startup Founders and Remote Tech Workers

The widespread adoption of remote work following the Covid pandemic has provided many, including the Harness Wealth team, with increased flexibility in terms of where they can reside and work. However, it is important to keep in mind that different states and territories have varying tax laws and some may be more favorable than others. So before you set off on your big move, consider the specific tax implications of doing so. Who knows, you might even find a more tax-friendly destination along the way.

5 Tips to Set Yourself Up for Financial Success in 2023

These are the seven areas of your financial picture that you need to consider optimizing before year end, particularly after yet another tumultuous year.

Founder & CEO of Orum Stephany Kirkpatrick joins the Harness Board

As an experienced executive and entrepreneur, Stephany has spent the last decade building technology to optimize financial outcomes for individuals – first at LearnVest where she holds patents for the design of its financial planning software, and now at Orum, a B2B Fintech company that is powering faster payments.

Harness Tools: Balance Sheet

Management guru Peter Drucker is often cited for advocating that “you can’t improve what you don’t measure.” When it comes to personal finance, this mantra is also largely true. It’s nearly impossible to make the most profitable investment and financial planning decisions without having a comprehensive view of your assets and liabilities.

Harness Tools: Equity Tax Insights

Whether you’re making $50,000 or $5,000,000 of W-2 income, there are only so many actions you can take to dramatically change your tax burden. With company equity, the tax treatment of those profits can be radically different.

April 2022: What's new in Harness Wealth?

Four ways to pay less taxes on crypto

If you've made crypto investments and are looking to reduce your tax bill, here are some strategies you can employ. Partnering with a crypto tax advisor can help you implement some of these strategies.

How to Manage Equity in a Down Market

You waited patiently for years and now your company is finally public. It’s a really exciting milestone. But what happens after an IPO? Over the past few months, tech stocks have not all performed well. While it’s definitely not the result you were hoping for in the short-term, there are some silver linings to a depressed stock price that you can take advantage of.

How to Evaluate Your Equity in a New Role

You’ve worked for months to secure the perfect new job — and now you have the offer in hand. One of the most attractive components of the role is the equity. The hiring manager is telling you it’ll be worth a lot, so how do you assess what’s being offered?

The most frequent tax questions about equity compensation, answered

In this article we’ll share answers to questions that come up constantly in these sessions (you’re not alone!). If there’s anything you’d like more clarity on, join us for 1:1 Equity Tax Planning Session. You can sign up here.

Last Minute and Ongoing Tax Tips for 2021 Tax Year

Optimize your returns as you prepare to file this year, and understand how next year's tax bill could be affected by things you do all year long.

How are Incentive Stock Options (ISOs) Taxed?

ISOs have a favorable tax treatment on exercise, but understanding your tax obligations and how to minimize your tax burden can be complicated. Before taking any decisions around your ISOs, it's important to understand the tax consequences and how that impacts potential future profits.

Harness Equity Tools Launches in Open Beta

We are excited about the release of the newest component to our platform, Harness Tools. This offering moves us closer to our goal of giving builders like you absolute confidence in setting the best path toward your financial future with a comprehensive view of your assets and analyzing the strategic steps to take with your equity.

Why You Shouldn’t Wait Until Next Year to Get a CPA

As much as we would like to delay thinking about tax filings, the end of the calendar year is the perfect time to evaluate whether you have the right CPA and get the right one in place. Here are the four reasons why you shouldn't wait.

How Quarterly Tax Payments Work

Quarterly tax payments can seem intimidating, particularly in the first year that this happens for you or your household. We recommend that you think of them not just as an extra bill/hassle from the IRS, but a great opportunity to start being strategic about your overall tax plan as part of your financial goals.

Financial Planning for Employees Before and After IPO

Working for a company that goes public can have life-changing financial consequences. It can also give rise to tax and legal issues that must be addressed proactively to protect and maximize your windfall.

Financial Wellness Employee Benefits for Startups

Amidst layoffs and IPOs in 2020, executive teams and HR leaders are reevaluating their benefits offerings in 2021 with a newly critical eye.

Liquidity Events & Equity: How HR Can Support Employee Decisions

This can be an exciting time for your organization, but if you’re a manager or HR leader, it likely means you will be facing a wave of questions from employees throughout the event about what it means for their equity and personal finances.

SPAC vs. IPO: Valuation, Lockup Period, and Employee Equity

As a founder or an employee at a company undergoing a SPAC, you should start planning as soon as you're aware the event is on the horizon. The financial impact of this event will not just be an easy windfall -- you'll have to consider the potential costs of exercising options, timing of selling shares, and the resulting tax bill before you can start thinking about how to invest your net proceeds.

How Harness's High-Value Marketplace Helps Clients Find Advisory Services

A few years ago, in the ideation phase of Harness Wealth, we knew we wanted to create a next generation financial platform for the next generation of builders: founders, early employees, business owners, and investors. I was able to transfer some learnings from the early and late stage developments at Compass to this new context.