Typical comp shape
Senior software engineers usually earn rsu + refresh grants. Common employers include Alphabet, Meta, Stripe, Airbnb. At IC6+ RSU grants commonly exceed base salary, and refresh grants stacked on initial grants create lumpy April tax bills.
What Minnesota changes
In Minnesota, every RSU vest, NSO exercise, and ESPP purchase carries 9.85% state tax on top of federal. For a senior senior software engineer with $300k+ of equity income, the state layer routinely adds $25-45k to the annual bill.
State AMT for ISO holders
If your senior software engineer role grants ISOs (common at pre-IPO startups, uncommon at post-IPO mega-caps), be aware that Minnesota runs its own AMT calculation. An ISO exercise-and-hold here generates AMT at two layers, not one.
Planning cadence
For a senior software engineer in Minnesota, the three planning windows are: after each RSU vest (withholding check and sell-vs-hold), before any ISO exercise (AMT model at both federal and state), and in Q4 (estimated tax top-up to clear the safe harbor).