Lyft (LYFT) NSO Exercise Calculator
Calculator · free · no signup · LYFTPlan your Lyft NSO exercise (federal, state, FICA) and compare sell-vs-hold for long-term capital gains.
Beta · invite-only · AlphaLatitude Inc. · Free Tools
Your grant
Tax inputs
Hold strategy
Best after-tax payout — at year 1
$199,080
Sell + invest wins by $20,783 over Hold 1 yr.
Estimates only. Not financial advice.
Sell + invest
Best payout| Bargain element (sale − strike) | $350,000 |
| Federal | |
| State | |
| Medicare | −$5,075 |
| Additional Medicare | −$3,150 |
| Market gain over 1 yr at 10.0% | $18,573 |
| LTCG on diversified gain (fed + state + NIIT) | −$5,219 |
| Net at year 1 | $199,080 |
Sell every share immediately; invest the after-tax cash at the market return for 1 yr, then liquidate. Diversified — no single-stock concentration risk.
Exercise + hold 1 yr
| Sale proceeds (year 1) | |
| LTCG tax (federal + state + NIIT) | $0 |
| Net at year 1 | $178,297 |
Sold 2,678 shares at exercise to cover strike + tax; 2,322 shares held 1 yr for LTCG.
Social Security + Medicare are payroll taxes (collectively called FICA) — they apply because you're exercising as a current employee.
Both columns are stated in year-1 dollars: sell-now proceeds compound at the market return and pay LTCG on the gain at year 1; any cash paid out of pocket on the hold side carries the same opportunity cost.
Net at year N — by hold period
Estimates only. Excludes AMT (NSOs do not trigger AMT), state-AMT, multi-state moves, and disqualifying-disposition edge cases. Not financial advice.
You calculated one NSO decision. The beta plans NSOs alongside RSUs and ISOs in a single multi-year tax plan.
Request beta access →About Lyft
Lyft (LYFT) is a public Marketplace company, incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Francisco, CA. IPO'd Mar 29, 2019.
Last close: $14.24 per share (as of 2026-06-16).
Equity grants at Lyft typically include non-qualified stock options (NSOs) and restricted stock units (RSUs).
Lyft, Inc. is an American company offering ride-hailing services, e-scooters, and bicycle-sharing systems in the United States and Canada, and, via its Free Now mobile app, Europe. Lyft is the second-largest ridesharing company in the United States after Uber. It has 25 million active riders and coordinates 9 million rides per day.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Logan Green and John Zimmer started Zimride in 2007 to share long-distance rides between college campuses, then pivoted to on-demand urban trips in 2012 under the Lyft brand. The San Francisco company now runs rideshare across the US and Canada alongside Lyft Black, XL, bikes, and scooters. After its March 2019 NASDAQ debut at $72, CEO David Risher took over in 2023 and pushed partnerships with Mobileye, May Mobility, and BENTELER for autonomous deployments. Q1 2026 reached 28.3 million active riders, $4.9B gross bookings, and $1.7B revenue.
Sources: investor.lyft.com · techcrunch.com
Equity comp at Lyft
- RSUs use single-trigger vesting: shares become yours as each portion vests on schedule, and the value is taxed as ordinary income at that point. No IPO or acquisition is required.
Researched 2026-05-07.
OptionsAhoy is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Lyft.
Use this calculator to estimate your Lyft (LYFT) NSO exercise tax (federal, state, FICA), then compare selling now versus holding through the long-term capital gains threshold. Inputs are yours: grant terms, current price, your income, your state.
Example: at Lyft (LYFT)'s last close of $14.24, exercising 5,000 NSOs with a $4.27 strike creates a $49,850 bargain element, taxed as ordinary income on the day you exercise. Combined federal + state + FICA on that bargain typically lands between $13,460 and $22,433 depending on your bracket and state. The calculator above computes the exact figure for your situation and compares selling now vs. holding through the long-term capital-gains threshold.
All Lyft tools → · Use the generic NSO Exercise Calculator for any company.
Lyft equity questions
- How is a Lyft NSO exercise taxed?
- Exercising a non-qualified stock option (NSO) creates ordinary income on the bargain element (the price on the day you exercise minus your strike), subject to federal income tax, state income tax, and FICA. The calculator above computes that tax for your Lyft grant and compares selling the shares now against holding past the one-year mark for long-term capital-gains treatment.
- Does Lyft grant ISOs, NSOs, or RSUs?
- Equity compensation at Lyft typically takes the form of non-qualified stock options (NSOs) and restricted stock units (RSUs). Restricted stock units are taxed as ordinary income when they vest.
- Do Lyft RSUs use double-trigger vesting?
- No. Lyft restricted stock units (RSUs) use single-trigger vesting: each tranche becomes yours as it vests on schedule, taxed as ordinary income at that point, with no liquidity event required.
One piece of the puzzle.
OptionsAhoy plans your Lyft equity alongside hedging, vesting, and de-concentration, across bullish, neutral, and bearish market scenarios. Free during beta.