I almost sold a week early and would have paid ₹1.8L in extra tax. My CA caught it.

I joined Amazon in 2021 as an SDE-II in the Bangalore office. If you're not familiar with how Amazon RSUs vest, the schedule is unusual: 5% in year one, 15% in year two, 40% in year three, 40% in year four. It's back-weighted deliberately — Amazon wants you to stay.

The implication is that your first two years, you're getting relatively small amounts. Year three is when it gets serious.

What happened in year three

My year-three lot vested in Q3 2024 — about $47,000 worth of AMZN, which was my largest single vest to date. Around the same time, I was planning some significant expenses: a home renovation and a portion of a property down payment. I decided to sell a chunk of the AMZN lot to fund these.

I had the lot in Morgan Stanley at Work. I knew I needed to hold for 24 months from vest date to qualify for LTCG treatment in India. I thought I was tracking this — I had a note in my phone with the vest date.

My CA, who handles my ITR, called me when I sent him the sale details. He asked when the lot had vested. I told him. He went quiet for a moment, then said: "Karthik, you sold 6 days before the 24-month mark."

What 6 days cost

On a $47,000 lot, selling 6 days early meant the entire gain was taxed as Short Term Capital Gain — at 30% plus applicable surcharge — instead of Long Term Capital Gain at 12.5%. The difference, on my specific gain, was approximately ₹1.8 lakh.

My CA filed correctly. I paid the STCG. The note in my phone had the vest date right, but I had miscounted — I had assumed 24 months meant 730 days, not accounting for the exact calendar logic.

This was not a grey area. This was a miscalculation that cost real money, and it was completely avoidable.

Finding Rovia

A few months after this I came across Rovia through a vested.blog post about LTCG tracking for US RSUs. The thing that stood out immediately was the per-lot countdown: each lot shows vest date, INR cost basis at vest, and the exact calendar date it qualifies as long-term.

I transferred my remaining lots. My year-four vest, which will be my second large lot, now has a countdown timer in my Rovia dashboard. I know the date. I have a calendar reminder. I will not miss it.

The compounding nature of this mistake

Back-weighted vesting means most Amazon employees face this problem in years three and four — exactly when their lots are largest. It's the worst possible time to be tracking this in a notes app.

The 24-month rule isn't complicated in theory. But when you're tracking 8–12 lots across different vest dates, all with different LTCG unlock windows, the probability of error compounds with every lot. A proper tracker isn't a luxury. For Amazon employees in year three, it's essentially mandatory.