US shares vesting - huge amount of tax claimed

[lmtester]

Hello

I have searched the forum and not found quite the information I need so am posting this as a new query.

My husband was awarded some HP shares as a bonus last year and the first tranch will vest on the 12th Dec. He has been sent a statement which gives the estimated gain at vest to be $1792.92 and the estimated taxes at vest $950.97 i.e. 53%! Meryll Lynch are the brokers and he has contacted them about the tax position and they say it is nothing to do with them. He is resident in he UK I should add.

My question is, how do we avoid these taxes? It says in the statement that ML will withold shares to cover the taxes, so out of 67 shares they will take 37.

Can anyone give me any idea on what to do next?

Many thanks
Louise and Steve Tester