Plan your Mercury ISO exercise

Calculator · free · no signup · pre-IPO

Mercury is pre-IPO. Plan your AMT impact at any valuation — current 409A, expected IPO price, or post-IPO scenarios.

Beta · invite-only · AlphaLatitude Inc. · Free Tools

Your grant

3 yrs
10%

Tax inputs

Grant timeline

For long-term capital gains treatment when sold, your ISO shares need to be held until Apr 30, 2027 (2 years from grant). Sales before that are disqualifying dispositions: this tool models exercise-and-hold only. Want to see the whole picture? Try OptionsAhoy's beta: it optimizes ISOs alongside your entire portfolio, and you pick the goal: max value, cash flow, or minimum tax.

Exercise tax cost — optimized plan

$97,243

Total bill: $325,617 ($228,374 regular + $97,243 from exercise)

Optimized plan saves $36,689 vs. lump-sum.

Up to 1,270 shares ($57,162 bargain element) this year before federal AMT applies.

Cumulative exercise cost

A line can dip when AMT credit from a prior year recovers. Hover a year for plan totals.

$0$41K$82K$123K$164KYear 1Year 2Year 3
Lump-sumEven splitOptimized

Optimized exercise schedule

You pay the higher of Regular tax and AMT tax each year (per jurisdiction). Hover any number for the bracket-by-bracket breakdown.

Year 15,500$247,500—$140,134
Year 22,400$120,000—$93,278
Year 32,100$116,550—$92,205

Federal AMT credit

Earned

$85,872

Recovered

$0

Remaining

$85,872

The AMT credit only recovers in years where regular tax exceeds AMT — typically a year with no ISO exercise. Every year in this schedule has bargain element, so AMT exceeds regular tax in every year and the credit carries forward untouched. Try a longer horizon or fewer total shares to introduce a recovery year.

Plan comparison

Exercise tax cost (regular tax baseline excluded).

Lump-sum

All in Year 1

$133,932

+$36,689

Even split

Equal shares each year

$103,522

+$6,280

Optimized

Tax-aware schedule

$97,243

Cheapest

Estimates only. Excludes disqualifying dispositions, NSOs, multi-state moves, and AMT preferences other than ISO bargain elements. State AMT figures are 2025 (next-year values published in late 2026). Not financial advice.

Mercury is a pre-IPO Fintech company. The calculator works at any valuation: enter your strike, the current 409A FMV, an expected IPO price, or anywhere in between. AMT is triggered on the bargain element (FMV − strike) when you exercise; the calculator models federal AMT, state AMT, and the multi-year credit-recovery path.

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