U.S. Treasury Data, 2012-2022
Who Actually Uses It
These are the people who took the risk. Founders who spent years building something. Employees who took below-market salary for equity. Investors who wrote checks when nobody else would.
75%
used it exactly once in 11 years
One exit. One reward. Only 6% claimed it five or more years.
$67,820
75th percentile annual exclusion
The typical meaningful QSBS exit. Median is just $2,810, pulled down by micro-claims.
2.55%
of all capital gains in 2021
QSBS is a rounding error in total capital gains.
Who QSBS actually helps
Senior Engineer
A senior engineer at a 50-person startup exercises $40K in stock after 6 years.
First-time Founder
A first-time founder sells after 8 years for $2M. First liquidity event of their career.
Early Employee
Employee #12 exercises options worth $150K after the company is acquired. Five years of below-market salary.
Seed Investor
Puts $25K into a friend's company. 7 years later it's worth $200K.
Tax shown at California's 13.3% rate, the highest in the nation. Your state may differ — try the calculator.
How large is a typical QSBS exclusion?
Annual exclusion amount by percentile. 90% of claimants exclude less than $591K.
Source: Treasury OTA WP-127, Table 1. Percentiles of annual individual QSBS exclusion claims, 2012-2022.
Distribution data: U.S. Treasury OTA Working Paper 127, January 2025. Archetype examples are illustrative, based on typical QSBS claim profiles.