Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who is the wealthiest person in the world, polled his Twitter followers on Saturday on whether he should sell 10 percent of his stock holdings in the electric car company, an apparent dig at the taxation of “unrealized gains” floated by the Biden administration.
“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock,” Musk tweeted. “Do you support this?”
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
“I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes,” Musk added later. “Note, I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere. I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.”
Note, I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere. I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2021
As of Sunday morning, the “Yes” vote was leading with 57.3 percent, compared to 42.7 percent for “No,” with over 3.2 million votes cast.
Musk has over 62 million followers on Twitter, and the sale of 10 percent of his stock would amount to over $21 billion.
In October, Musk openly criticized the tax proposals being pushed by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), saying, “Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you.”
Exactly. Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2021
“Democrats are poised to consider a plan that would upend tax rules for the wealthiest Americans, as Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden makes a late bid for a new capital-gains tax in President Biden’s social-spending and climate-change legislation,” The Wall Street Journal reported at the time. “Mr. Wyden’s detailed proposal — annual income taxes on about 700 billionaires’ unsold publicly traded assets such as stocks — arrives as Democrats are struggling to find up to $2 trillion over a decade to cover the cost of their agenda. They have plenty of ideas that would exceed that figure, but precious few that can muster the support of enough Democrats to get through the narrowly divided Congress.”
“Mr. Wyden’s 107-page plan would eliminate billionaires’ ability to defer capital-gains taxes indefinitely, and it would impose multibillion-dollar tax bills on people such as Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk, who has criticized the plan. It is expected to raise hundreds of billions of dollars over a decade, though the actual amount would depend on stock prices and on whether courts rule the tax unconstitutional,” the outlet continued. “The money would come from the wealthiest taxpayers, many of whom currently can keep their reported income and tax bills low. Under today’s tax system, they don’t have to pay capital-gains taxes unless they sell their assets, and they can borrow against that wealth to finance their lifestyles.”
Sen. Wyden responded to Musk’s tweet on Saturday, writing, “Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll. It’s time for the Billionaires Income Tax.”
Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll. It’s time for the Billionaires Income Tax. https://t.co/KFHw3VZ45H
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) November 6, 2021
As the BBC noted, Musk “recently said that he would sell $6bn in Tesla stock and donate it to the World Food Program, provided the organisation disclosed more information about how it spent its money.”
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Source: Dailywire
