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Glossary · Equity

Non-Qualified Stock Option (NSO)

Stock options taxed as ordinary income at exercise.

Definition

NSOs are stock options taxed as ordinary income on the spread between strike and fair market value at exercise. More flexible than ISOs but less tax-efficient.

How SalaryScopePro uses this term

We surface non-qualified stock option (nso) across salary results, occupation pages, city pages, and Premium Reports — with consistent definitions and methodology. See methodology and data sources for how the underlying numbers are computed.