AMT calculator

• ISO exercise range showing where AMT starts to apply
• Multi-year AMT credit recovery projection
• Strategy planner comparing pooled brokerage sale schedules
• AMT preference item breakdown with line-by-line detail
• Explicit single-business Section 199A QBI inputs, including prior-year qualified business loss carryforwards
• Grant-level analysis across multiple ISO grants

Use the AMT Calculator to estimate tax from exercising incentive stock options (ISOs). The exercise range shows the largest share count it evaluated without AMT and estimates tax at higher counts. The calculator supports tax years 2022 through 2026.

Choose the mode that matches your question:

Mode 1: AMT estimate

1. Enter your filing status and W-2 income.
2. Enter the number of shares, strike price, and current FMV for each ISO. ISO rows support held exercises and same-day sales. The calculator models NSO rows as exercises taxed as ordinary income.
3. The calculator shows your regular tax, tentative minimum tax, and any AMT owed.
4. If Section 199A applies, open advanced settings. Enter explicit QBI, prior-year QBI loss carryforward, W-2 wages, UBIA, and SSTB status. The calculator does not infer business QBI from self-employment income.

Mode 2: ISO exercise range

1. Enter the estimate inputs and total shares available.
2. The chart shows total tax as you exercise more shares, with the first modeled AMT point marked.

Mode 3: AMT credit recovery

1. Enter your AMT paid and baseline wage growth rate.
2. Optionally add explicit income overrides or future ISO/NSO grants for any projection year you want to model directly.
3. Future income overrides can also pin QBI and prior-year QBI loss carryforward amounts for a projection year.
4. The projection shows how the credit balance changes over time, including any future AMT generated by later exercises.

Mode 4: strategy planner

1. Choose a planning objective and planning horizon. The horizon controls how many projection years the planner can use when ranking exercise and sale schedules.
2. Enter pooled brokerage sale capacity by year, including estimated sale proceeds and realized gains.
3. Optionally set target net cash when the plan needs to fund a cash goal, or AMT budget to cap current-year AMT generated by the recommendation.
4. Compare the highest-ranked schedule, alternatives, and ISO versus long-term gain sensitivity map.

Scenario: 2025 federal tax, single filer, $150,000 W-2 income, the standard deduction, and no other income or deductions. The filer exercises and holds 1,000 ISOs with a $10 strike price and $50 FMV.

1. The ISO spread is ($50 − $10) × 1,000 = $40,000. This is not taxed for regular tax but added to AMT income.
2. Regular taxable income is $150,000 − $15,750 (2025 standard deduction) = $134,250. Regular income tax is $25,067.
3. AMT adds back the standard deduction and includes the ISO spread. AMT income is $134,250 + $15,750 + $40,000 = $190,000.
4. After the $88,100 AMT exemption, the $101,900 AMT base produces $26,494 tentative minimum tax at 26%.
5. Tentative minimum tax exceeds regular income tax by $1,427, so the modeled AMT owed is $1,427. The exercise range chart shows where AMT begins between zero and 1,000 shares.

• AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax): a parallel tax system that adds back certain deductions and preference items. You owe AMT when your tentative minimum tax exceeds your regular tax. See the Glossary.
• ISO (incentive stock option): a stock option whose exercise spread is an AMT preference item, not ordinary income. The spread = FMV − strike price.
• NSO (non-qualified stock option): the spread counts as ordinary income (W-2) at exercise for both regular and AMT purposes. NSOs do not create an AMT differential.
• Itemized deduction limit: for 2026, high income itemizers may have deductions reduced before the regular tax and AMT computation.
• Section 199a QBI deduction: a regular-tax deduction for qualified business income. The calculator accepts explicit single-business inputs, applies prior-year QBI loss carryforwards first, and surfaces any remaining carryforward. See the IRS Form 8995 instructions and Form 8995-a instructions.
• Other AMT adjustments: a net Form 6251 amount for adjustment and preference items that the form does not otherwise model. Positive values increase AMTI. Negative values reduce AMTI.
• FMV (fair market value): The current market price of the stock. A private company can use an applicable 409A valuation as its FMV source.
• Strike price: the price at which you can buy shares under your option grant.

The ISO exercise range chart shows how your total tax changes as you exercise more ISO shares. It evaluates up to 200 evenly spaced exercise counts between zero and your full ISO position. The result narrows the decision to a range, not a single exact share count.

• First modeled AMT point: the smallest evaluated exercise count at which AMT applies. The true crossover lies between the previous evaluated count and this one. Treat the previous count as the largest exercise size confirmed to stay clear of AMT.
• Marginal tax impact: past the crossover, each additional share exercised increases your tax bill by the AMT rate (26-28%) applied to the per-share spread.

AMT paid on deferral items (like ISO exercises) generates a credit that can offset your regular tax in future years. The credit is usable in any year where your regular tax exceeds your tentative minimum tax.

By default, the recovery projection uses your specified baseline wage growth rate and assumes no future grants. You can override any future year with explicit income inputs and add future ISO/NSO exercises when you need a more exact projection.

Projection years can run past the newest AMT table. Those years reuse its brackets, exemptions, and phaseout thresholds without inflation adjustments. The results panel identifies that law year.

The strategy planner uses the same AMT credit recovery logic when it reports net cash after tax. Recovered credit increases projected cash in the year the plan applies it.

The strategy planner ranks modeled schedules under your selected objective. It also shows alternatives, a frontier plot, and a sensitivity map.

• Strategy recommendation: the schedule ranked highest by your selected objective. Year rows show exercise cost, sale proceeds, incremental tax, net cash, AMT generated, and AMT credit usage. Net cash after tax includes any AMT credit used in that year.
• Strategy frontier: plots current-year AMT on the x-axis and net cash after tax on the y-axis. Marker color shows projected AMT credit recovered, and marker size reflects current-year ISO shares exercised.
• ISO vs LT gain sensitivity: plots current-year ISO shares exercised on the x-axis and current-year long-term realized gains on the y-axis. Each heatmap cell shows the resulting current-year AMT for that combination. Hover details also show projected AMT credit recovered and net cash after tax for that sampled combination. The exhibit collapses to a single-dimension AMT profile when only one of the two dimensions varies. This happens when you enter no brokerage sale capacity.
• Brokerage sale capacity: this is aggregate capacity, not lot-level optimization. Enter proceeds and realized gains by year. Realized gains cannot exceed proceeds.