&gt; This is a little bit of a roundabout way to give you ownership of Clef, but the reason we give options instead of straight stock is that it keeps you from being taxed on the stock until you actually use it. If we gave you $10,000 worth of Clef stock today, you would have to pay thousands of dollars in taxes this year.<p>Maybe I misunderstand, but this seems somewhat dishonest to me. Giving out options instead of shares does not help the employee or or &quot;keep you from being taxed.&quot; Instead, it&#x27;s a punishment for the company not growing. If the value of the company does not increase in value before the vest date, the options will be worth nothing, but shares would still have value.