Elon Musk, a celebrity entrepreneur and the richest person in the world, has let his followers decide whether or not to pay taxes.
Yesterday, the billionaire asked his 62.5 million Twitter followers to vote on whether to sell ten per cent of his Tesla stock. This would mean he would have to pay capital gains taxes.
Musk tweeted that “much has been made lately of unrealised profits being a method of tax avoidance”, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.
Musk said he would “abide by the results… whatever way it goes.” There are less than an hour left before the poll closes and 57% of the 3.4m respondents voted for the sale.
Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.
Do you support this?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2021
Elon Musk allows his Twitter followers to vote on whether Tesla stock should be sold in order for him to pay taxes.
This comes as the US’ ruling Democrats party discusses a “billionaires tax”, which will affect 700 ultra-rich individuals. They would have to pay taxes on long term capital gains on tradable asset tradable assets regardless of whether they have been sold.
Musk stated that he won’t have to pay taxes if he doesn’t sell stock.
“I don’t accept any cash bonus or salary from anyone. He said that he only has stock and therefore the only way to pay taxes is to sell it.
Musk holds approximately 170.5m Tesla shares. Selling 10% of his stock would net him $21bn, based on Friday’s closing prices.
Musk offered to sell Tesla stock for $6 billion and donate the proceeds to the World Food Program (WFP), if the organisation could give a detailed plan of how the money would go.
This was in response to comments made by the United Nations World Food Programme executive director, who stated that two per cent of Musk’s wealth could end world hunger.
