Any downside to maxing out ESPP each year? Done it for 3 cycles now, and thinking I should taper back.

Always good to buy and get a discount. You can sell it immediately afterwards to get the cash back. Or better yet, wait at least one year to sell so you can get the LT capital gains tax rate instead of your marginal rate.

You should be careful how much you keep in your company stock as a portion of your Net Worth. I'm at 8% and going to sell at the end of the year to bring it under 4%

LT = Long Term
If you hold a stock for more than 1 year, the gains on that stock is taxed at 15%
If you hold a stock for less than 1 year, the gains on that stock are taxed at 35%
ProTip: If you have stock investment losses, you can report that when you file taxes for more on your tax return

You don't need to hold for 1 year to sell to "save" on taxes for the discount.

The discount is paid for by Accenture meaning it's taxed as income regardless of the stock.

LT capital gains would affect any increase in the stock price - but not that original 15% discount.

The downside is that you put too much risk into the company you already work for (they already pay your salary, don't let their performance also impact your investments) and you out too much into a single stock. You should ideally just buy broad market index mutual funds at low expense ratios (see Vanguard) and take a buy and hold strategy.

A2: You are taxed at your marginal tax rate. Most people at Accenture (unless you're a super MD) aren't close to the 35% marginal tax bracket ($400k/year). My guess is the person is in the 25% or the 28% tax bracket. The LT capital gains tax is still sliding but assuming you are in the 25/28 range, your LT tax is 15% so you will save 10-13% on the capital gains you have if you wait a year.

Thank you A1, very insightful! For my understanding, what does LT stand for? And what is an expected % savings in tax rate by holding on for 1 year before selling?

Google long term capital gains

A3: You are correct. I misspoke there. I do like to keep some stock around for a while and sell after a year. But strictly speaking, you could sell immediately and pay basically no tax unless there was a sudden shift in the market.

A1 is that assuming you already have stock and are selling stock from a year+ ago?

@A3 the tax savings are based on the day you purchased and sold the specific stock regardless of any other stock you have.