Net Unrealized Appreciation Calculator
Should employer stock come out of the 401(k) with the NUA election, or roll over with everything else? Every piece below can be linked to, so it opens in a window on your reader's screen, current as of the record. No form to fill in.
2026 law · Reviewed September 6, 2026 · The full page, with methodology and sources · the terms · All tools
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The shares' value, their cost basis, and your ordinary and gains rates in; the tax each way and the saving out. In a frame it carries no cookies, no tracking, and a visible link back to the methodology. Your site has to allow frames; most do. The link that opens it in a small window is on the professionals page.
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- In plain words.
- If your 401(k) holds your employer's stock, there is a special way to take it out. Instead of rolling the shares into an IRA, you can move them into a regular brokerage account. You pay ordinary income tax now on what the plan paid for the shares, and the growth since then is taxed as a long-term capital gain only when you sell, at the lower gains rate. This tool takes the shares' value, what they cost, and your tax rates, and compares the two routes.
- Why it matters.
- For a long-tenured employee whose company stock has grown many times over, the difference can be tens of thousands of dollars. The choice is made once, when the plan is emptied, and cannot be undone.
- An example.
- Company stock worth $500,000 that the plan bought for $100,000, at a 32 percent ordinary rate and 15 percent on gains: the election costs about $92,000 in tax in all, against about $160,000 if the shares are rolled over and withdrawn. The election saves about $68,000.
- Where it stops.
- The whole plan must come out in one year, after leaving the job, 59½, disability, or death. If you leave before the year you turn 55 and are under 59½, a 10 percent penalty applies to the cost part. And the rollover route defers its tax, sometimes for decades, which this comparison does not credit.
The facts
Six quotable sentences on net unrealized appreciation.
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- Employer stock held inside a 401(k) can be taken out of the plan in a lump-sum distribution and taxed on only what the plan paid for it; the growth, the net unrealized appreciation, is not taxed until the shares are sold, and then as long-term capital gain whatever the holding period (§ 402(e)(4)).
- Rolled into an IRA instead, the same shares lose that treatment: every dollar, growth included, is ordinary income when withdrawn.
- The distribution must be the whole balance of the plan within one tax year, after separation from service, age 59½, disability, or death (§ 402(e)(4)(D)); the other assets in the plan can be rolled over in the same year.
- The cost basis taxed at distribution carries the 10 percent additional tax if the employee is under 59½, unless separation came in or after the year of turning 55 (§ 72(t)(2)(A)(v)).
- Example: $500,000 of employer stock with a $100,000 basis, at a 32 percent ordinary rate and 15 percent on gains. Taken out with the election, the tax is $92,000 in all; rolled over and withdrawn, $160,000. The election saves $68,000.
- The election pays when the basis is a small share of the value and the ordinary rate is well above the gains rate; with little appreciation, or a low bracket in retirement, a rollover's deferral can win instead.
The election by cost basis
How the saving shrinks as the basis grows.
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| Basis as a share of value | Basis | With the election | Rolled over | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10% | $50,000 | $83,500 | $160,000 | $76,500 |
| 25% | $125,000 | $96,250 | $160,000 | $63,750 |
| 50% | $250,000 | $117,500 | $160,000 | $42,500 |
| 75% | $375,000 | $138,750 | $160,000 | $21,250 |
Cite and link.
The clean address, a citation generated from the record so it can never carry a stale review date, and an address for every section so you can point a reader at the exact table or method.
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- Link
- https://consideratecapital.com/tools/nua-calculator
- Citation
- Considerate Capital, "Net Unrealized Appreciation Calculator," reviewed September 6, 2026, https://consideratecapital.com/tools/nua-calculator.
Link to a section
- The calculator https://consideratecapital.com/tools/nua-calculator#calculator
- The facts https://consideratecapital.com/tools/nua-calculator#facts
- By cost basis https://consideratecapital.com/tools/nua-calculator#key-numbers
- How the election works https://consideratecapital.com/tools/nua-calculator#how-it-works
- Methodology https://consideratecapital.com/tools/nua-calculator#methodology
- Sources https://consideratecapital.com/tools/nua-calculator#sources
- Revision history https://consideratecapital.com/tools/nua-calculator#revision-history
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