Reading your E*Trade Stock Plan statement: a field-by-field guide for Indian RSU holders

You work at Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday, or another company that uses E*Trade Stock Plan (now Morgan Stanley at Work). Your CA asked for "the vest statement and cost basis." You logged in, found the Transactions page, and saw rows labelled "RS Release," "Sell — Tax Obligation," and "Dividend Reinvestment." Your CA is asking for the gross value. You can see Gross Proceeds on the sell row but not obviously on the vest row.

Note on naming: ETrade Stock Plan is now called Morgan Stanley at Work following Morgan Stanley's 2020 acquisition of ETrade. The portal may show either branding depending on your employer's setup. The field names and statement structure are the same under both names.

Filing for AY 2026-27? See the ITR-2 for RSU holders complete guide for the full eight-schedule walkthrough including all India-specific conversions.

This article maps every E*Trade Stock Plan field to its India tax filing equivalent. The statement was designed for US filers — this is the translation layer your CA needs.

How E*Trade Stock Plan is organised

Section	Navigation path	What India filing needs from it
Transactions	Stock Plan → My Account → Transactions	Vest (RS Release) events, sell-to-cover, dividends
Positions	Stock Plan → My Account → Positions	Year-end holdings for Schedule FA
Tax Documents	Stock Plan → Documents → Tax Documents	1042-S for Form 44 FTC; 1099-B for sale verification
Grants	Stock Plan → My Grants	Grant dates, vesting schedule, outstanding shares

Transactions: the RS Release row (vest event)

E*Trade labels the vest event "RS Release" (Restricted Stock Release) or sometimes just "Vest" depending on your employer's plan configuration.

A typical RS Release row:

Date:               20-Feb-2026
Type:               RS Release
Symbol:             CRM
Quantity Released:  30.0000
Price per Share:    $312.50
Gross Value:        $9,375.00
Tax Obligation:     $2,718.75
Net Shares:         21.2996

For India tax filing:

• Gross Value ($9,375.00) is the perquisite income. Convert to INR at SBI TTBR on 20-Feb-2026. This goes into Schedule S (Salary) as perquisite value under Section 17(2).
• Net Shares (21.2996) is what was deposited. Do not use this to calculate perquisite income.
• Gross Value at vest date also becomes your cost basis for future capital gains in INR (vest-date TTBR × Gross Value in USD).

Some E*Trade statement formats show the Release row differently — the Gross Value might be labelled "Total Proceeds" or "Market Value." In all cases it's Quantity Released × Price per Share before tax deduction.

The "Sell — Tax Obligation" row

Immediately following every RS Release, you'll see a sell transaction:

Date:               20-Feb-2026
Type:               Sell — Tax Obligation
Symbol:             CRM
Quantity Sold:      8.7004
Price per Share:    $312.50
Proceeds:           $2,718.75

This is the sell-to-cover — E*Trade sold 8.7004 shares at $312.50 to raise $2,718.75 to cover the US tax withholding (approximately 29% federal + state in this example).

Do not count this as a capital gain. The sell-to-cover is a zero-gain transaction when executed at the vest-date price (which it is, by construction). Including it as a separate sale on Schedule CG overstates your capital gains. Exclude it.

If the sell-to-cover was executed at a slightly different price than the vest-date price (which happens in fast markets), the tiny gain or loss is irrelevant for India filing purposes — the perquisite is computed on the gross vest-date value regardless.

Transactions: Share Sale (voluntary sale by you)

When you sell shares yourself (outside of the automatic sell-to-cover), the transaction appears as:

Date:               05-Jun-2026
Type:               Sell
Symbol:             CRM
Quantity Sold:      10.0000
Price per Share:    $330.00
Gross Proceeds:     $3,300.00
Commission:         $0.00
Net Proceeds:       $3,300.00

For India capital gains (Schedule CG):

Step	Calculation	Output
Sale value in INR	$3,300 × SBI TTBR on 05-Jun-2026 (say ₹83.80)	₹2,76,540
Cost basis in INR	10 shares × $312.50 (vest-date FMV) × SBI TTBR on 20-Feb-2026 (say ₹83.40)	₹2,60,625
Capital gain	₹2,76,540 − ₹2,60,625	₹15,915
Holding period	20-Feb-2026 to 05-Jun-2026 = 105 days	STCG (< 24 months, slab rate)

Note: E*Trade shows a "Cost Basis" column in the Positions tab. This may be the US-adjusted cost basis (= vest-date FMV, in this case $312.50/share × lot size). Verify it matches the Gross Value from the original RS Release row. If it differs, use the RS Release Gross Value ÷ Quantity Released as the correct per-share cost basis.

Transactions: Dividend row

Date:               15-Mar-2026
Type:               Dividend
Symbol:             CRM (if applicable)
Gross Amount:       $18.50
Withholding:        $4.63 (25% under DTAA)
Net Amount:         $13.87

Salesforce (CRM) does not currently pay dividends — this example is illustrative for companies on E*Trade that do (e.g., Cisco, Broadcom, Texas Instruments).

For India filing:

• Gross Amount → Income from Other Sources at slab rate; convert at SBI TTBR on 15-Mar-2026
• Withholding → FTC claim via Form 44; same TTBR date
• Attach the 1042-S (not just this transaction row) as the official FTC supporting document

Positions tab: Schedule FA data

Pull a Positions statement for December 31, 2025 (for AY 2026-27 Schedule FA). Filter the date to 31-Dec-2025 or request the year-end account statement.

E*Trade field	Schedule FA field
Symbol / Company Name	Name of Entity (the issuing company, e.g., "Salesforce, Inc.")
Quantity	Units held
Price (Dec 31)	Per-share USD value
Market Value (Dec 31)	Closing Value in USD → convert at Dec 31 TTBR

Schedule FA custodian details for E*Trade / Morgan Stanley at Work:

• Custodian name: Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (E*Trade Securities LLC for older accounts)
• Address: 1 E*Trade Financial Center, Jersey City, NJ 07310, USA
• Country code: 2 (United States)

If your employer transitioned from E*Trade to StockPlan Connect during the calendar year (some companies did this after the Morgan Stanley acquisition consolidated platforms), list the account under whichever entity held shares on 31-Dec-2025 as the closing custodian, and the earlier entity for the pre-transition period.

Tax Documents: 1042-S and 1099-B

Find these at Stock Plan → Documents → Tax Documents:

Document	Indian resident should use it for
1042-S	Form 44 FTC claim (US tax withheld on dividends)
1099-B	Cross-checking sale dates, quantities, proceeds
Equity Summary or Year-End Statement	Full activity log for the year; use to reconcile CA's working

The 1042-S is issued by March 15. The 1099-B is issued by January 31. If you had dividends but no 1042-S, check whether W-8BEN is on file under Profile → Tax Forms → W-8BEN.

The four errors that catch most E*Trade filers

1. Using "Net Proceeds" from the Sell–Tax Obligation row as perquisite income. The Sell–Tax Obligation row shows the net amount raised for US tax, not your perquisite value. Perquisite = RS Release → Gross Value.

2. Confusing ETrade Stock Plan with ETrade retail brokerage. Some employees transferred vested shares from ETrade Stock Plan into a personal ETrade retail brokerage account. Both accounts need separate Schedule FA entries if both held assets during the calendar year — different account numbers, same custodian.

3. Missing vests from a previous employer on the same E*Trade platform. If you changed jobs and both old and new employers used E*Trade Stock Plan, the old employer's account may still show holdings. Both are reportable on Schedule FA.

4. Applying wrong holding period threshold. RSU shares held in E*Trade are foreign listed equity (not Indian-exchange listed), so the LTCG holding period is 24 months, not 12 months. Shares sold within 24 months of vesting attract STCG at slab rate, not the 20% STCG rate that applies to Indian-listed shares.

Field translation summary

E*Trade field	India tax filing field	TTBR date
Transactions → RS Release → Gross Value	Salary perquisite (Schedule S)	RS Release Date
Transactions → RS Release → Gross Value	Cost basis for future sale	RS Release Date
Transactions → Dividend → Gross Amount	Income from Other Sources	Dividend date
Transactions → Dividend → Withholding	FTC via Form 44	Dividend date
Transactions → Sell → Gross Proceeds	Capital gains sale value (Schedule CG)	Sale date
Tax Documents → 1042-S	Form 44 supporting document	—
Positions → Market Value (Dec 31)	Schedule FA Closing Value	Dec 31

Next in the series

• Fidelity NetBenefits field guide — same walkthrough for Fidelity
• Morgan Stanley StockPlan Connect field guide — same walkthrough for StockPlan Connect
• RSU cost basis India: which number to use — resolving cost basis confusion across all broker formats