Last reviewed October 2026
Updated October 2026 with 2026-27 tax rates, the 30-day rule and the capital gains changes that start on 1 July 2027.
RSUs are taxed in Australia when they vest, at your marginal rate, on the value of the shares that day. On a $250,000 salary, every $100,000 that vests adds $47,000 to your tax bill, and in most Australian plans nothing is withheld to pay it.
Most people with RSUs know that much. What catches them is everything around it. The bill can turn up more than a year after the vest, the shares can have fallen by then, and after a big year the ATO starts asking for part of next year’s tax in advance. Each of those can be managed, and the earlier you plan for them, the cheaper they are.
General information only. It isn’t personal advice. Consider speaking with a licensed adviser and registered tax agent about your situation.
Five points cover how RSUs are taxed in Australia.
- There’s no tax when RSUs are granted, and the vest is taxed as income at your marginal rate
- Most Australian plans withhold nothing, so the full bill arrives after you lodge
- Share scheme income puts you onto quarterly PAYG instalments, so a big vest year raises next year’s payments too
- Sell within 30 days of vesting and you’re taxed once, on the sale price, with no separate capital gain
- Shares you keep longer pick up a capital gain from the vest-day value, under new rules from 1 July 2027
What RSUs are and when they’re taxed
RSU stands for restricted stock unit. It’s a promise from your employer to give you shares on set vesting dates, as long as you’re still with the company, and it’s become a standard part of salary packages in tech and at large listed companies. When a job offer quotes a base salary plus RSUs, the RSUs are the shares you’ll receive over the next few years on top of your pay.
Most grants vest over three or four years, often quarterly or every six months, and new grants usually start vesting on top of the old ones. Some only vest if performance targets are met as well. Unlike stock options, you don’t pay anything to receive the shares, and they’re worth something as long as the share price is above zero, whereas an option only has value if the price rises above the price you’d pay to buy.
Nothing is taxed when the grant is made, because at that stage you don’t own anything and could still lose it. The tax arrives at what the ATO calls the deferred taxing point, which for most RSUs is the vest date, when the shares become yours with no real risk of losing them. The market value of the shares on that day, converted to Australian dollars, is added to your income for the year.
If you leave before a tranche vests and those units are forfeited, there’s nothing to tax on them. And the deferral has a ceiling, because if shares were somehow still restricted 15 years after the grant, they’d be taxed at that point anyway.
How much tax you’ll pay on a vest
The vest is taxed on top of your salary, so the rate depends on what you already earn. The table uses the 2026-27 tax rates including the 2% Medicare levy, and shows the extra tax each vest adds and how much of the vest that is.
| Salary before the vest | $50,000 vests | $100,000 vests | $150,000 vests |
|---|---|---|---|
| $120,000 | $18,450 (36.9%) | $40,350 (40.4%) | $63,850 (42.6%) |
| $180,000 | $22,700 (45.4%) | $46,200 (46.2%) | $69,700 (46.5%) |
| $250,000 or more | $23,500 (47.0%) | $47,000 (47.0%) | $70,500 (47.0%) |
On a $120,000 salary, a big vest pushes part of your income through two higher brackets, which is why the rate climbs from 36.9% to 42.6% as the vest gets bigger. From around $190,000, every extra dollar is already at the top rate of 47%, so the bill is simply 47 cents of every dollar that vests.
It’s worth working this out on the day of each vest rather than at tax time. A $150,000 vest year on a $250,000 salary is $70,500 of tax, which is about $1,356 for every week of the year, and it’s much easier to set aside as you go than to find in one go. The RSU vest tax calculator works out that figure for your own vest, including how many shares it would take to cover the bill.
Why nothing is withheld, and what happens next
Your salary has tax taken out before it reaches you. Vested shares generally don’t, because employers only have to withhold from share scheme income if you haven’t given them your tax file number. So the shares arrive whole, and the tax lands when you lodge your return.
Your employer sends an employee share scheme statement by 14 July each year, listing the taxable amount for each vest, and that figure goes into your return. If you use a tax agent, the bill might not be due until the following autumn, so a vest in July 2026 could easily turn into a payment in early 2028.
Then there’s the second hit people don’t expect. Share scheme income puts you onto quarterly PAYG instalments, where the ATO estimates next year’s tax from this year’s income and asks for it in four payments. So after a big vest year, you can be paying off last year’s bill and prepaying this year’s at the same time.
The 30-day rule
The 30-day rule is the most useful part of the RSU tax rules, and most people have never heard of it. If you sell shares within 30 days after they vest, the taxing point moves to the date you sold, and you’re taxed on the sale price instead of the vest-day value.
That does two things. There’s only one tax event, so there’s no separate capital gain or loss to deal with next year. And if the price falls between the vest and the sale, you’re taxed on the lower amount you actually received, which is a small protection that holding doesn’t give you.
It’s worth checking your company’s trading windows before counting on the full 30 days, because a blackout period can close part of it. Whether to sell some, all or none at vest is a bigger decision, and our post on whether to sell your RSUs when they vest runs the numbers on it.
Capital gains tax when you sell later
Shares you keep past the 30 days are treated as bought for their market value on the vest date, so that becomes their cost base. Any growth from there is a capital gain when you sell, and any fall is a capital loss, which can only be used against capital gains and never against your salary.
How that gain is taxed is changing. From 1 July 2027, the 50% CGT discount is replaced by indexing the cost base for inflation, with a 30% minimum tax on the real gain, for shares held at least 12 months from the vest. Growth up to 1 July 2027 keeps the old 50% discount. Shares sold within 12 months of vesting are taxed on the full gain at your marginal rate either way, and our post on the 50% CGT discount changes covers the switch.
If your shares are listed overseas
Most RSUs held by Australians are in US-listed companies. The taxable amount at vest is the share value in Australian dollars, using the exchange rate on the vest date, so the currency on that day helps set the bill.
From there, the shares move in US dollars while the tax bill sits in Australian dollars, so a stronger Australian dollar shrinks what your shares will raise without changing what you owe. Your US broker will usually also ask for a W-8BEN form, which sets the US withholding on any dividends at the treaty rate, and that US tax can generally be claimed as a foreign tax offset here.
Ways to manage the bill
The simplest approach is selling enough at each vest to cover the tax, inside the 30-day window, and parking the cash in your home loan offset until the bill arrives. It costs nothing to set up, and it means the bill never depends on where the share price goes. The trade-off is that you hold less of the shares if they keep rising.
Super can bring the tax down too, but on a high salary the room is smaller than most people think. Your employer’s 12% super contributions use up most of the $32,500 cap, so the room usually comes from unused cap carried forward from earlier years, which needs a super balance under $500,000. A vest year is often the best year to use it, because every dollar comes off the 47% slice.
The bigger question is what happens to the shares you keep, because a large share of your wealth in one company is a risk to plan around. Our guide to restricted stock units covers how grants and vesting schedules work, and our guide to saving tax in Australia covers what to do with the money once it’s sold.
If a big part of your pay arrives as shares, our page on financial advice for tech workers sets out how we plan each vest alongside your super, your property and the rest of your tax.
Frequently asked questions
How are RSUs taxed in Australia?
RSUs are taxed as income when they vest, at your marginal rate, on the market value of the shares that day in Australian dollars. Any growth after the vest is taxed as a capital gain when you sell, unless you sell within 30 days of vesting, in which case you’re taxed once on the sale price.
Do you pay tax on RSUs twice?
Not on the same money. The vest-day value is taxed as income, and only the growth after that is taxed as a capital gain when you sell. If you sell within 30 days of vesting, there’s no capital gain at all, because the income tax is worked out on the sale price.
Does my employer withhold tax on RSUs?
In most Australian plans, no. Employers only have to withhold from share scheme income if you haven’t given them your tax file number, so the full tax lands when you lodge. Some overseas plans sell shares at vest to cover tax for their own country’s rules, but that isn’t paid to the ATO for you.
How much tax will I pay on my RSUs?
It depends on your salary. On 2026-27 rates, anyone earning above $190,000 pays 47% on every dollar that vests, including the Medicare levy, so a $100,000 vest adds $47,000. On a $120,000 salary, the same vest adds about $40,350, because part of it falls in lower brackets.
When do I pay the tax on my RSUs?
The tax is due when your return is assessed for the year the shares vested, which can be well into the following year if you use a tax agent. After a year with share scheme income, you’ll usually also go onto quarterly PAYG instalments, so the ATO collects part of the next year’s tax in advance.
What are the disadvantages of RSUs?
The main ones are tax and concentration. The tax is due when the shares vest, usually with nothing withheld, so you need cash or a plan to sell to pay it. And because your salary, bonus and shares all depend on one company, holding every vest can leave too much of your wealth tied to a single share price. Unvested units are also usually lost if you leave.
What happens to my RSUs if I leave my job?
Units that haven’t vested are usually forfeited when you leave, and forfeited units aren’t taxed. Shares that have already vested stay yours, along with the tax that applied at vest. Your plan rules set the detail, including any good leaver terms.
Your RSU tax checklist
The bill is easiest to handle when it’s planned at each vest rather than discovered at tax time. Working through these steps every time shares vest keeps it under control.
- Before each vest, check the date, the number of shares and your company’s trading windows
- On vest day, work out the tax at your marginal rate on the Australian dollar value
- Within 30 days, sell enough to cover the tax, or move the same amount into your offset if you’ve decided to hold
- In July, check your employee share scheme statement against your own records
- Before 30 June, check whether you have unused super cap to bring the tax down
- Build the quarterly PAYG instalments into your cash flow for the following year
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Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is general in nature and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Therefore, you should consider whether the information is appropriate to your circumstances before acting on it, and where appropriate, seek professional advice from a finance professional.