Tesla, Inc. CEO Elon Musk should sell about 10 per cent of his company stock, according to 57.9 per cent of people who voted on his Twitter poll asking users of the social media network whether he should offload the stake.
“I was prepared to accept either outcome,” Musk said, after the voting ended.
The world’s richest person tweeted on Saturday that he would offload 10 per cent of his stock if users approved the proposal.
The poll garnered more than 3.5 million votes.
“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock,” Musk said on Saturday, adding that he does not take cash salary or bonus “from anywhere,” and only has stock.
Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.<br><br>Do you support this?
—@elonmusk
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.
—@elonmusk
U.S. Senate Democrats have unveiled a proposal to tax billionaires’ stocks and other tradeable assets to help finance President Joe Biden’s social spending agenda and fill a loophole that has allowed them to defer capital gains taxes indefinitely.
Musk has criticized the proposal, saying, “Eventually, they run out of other people’s money and then they come for you.”
Tesla valued at over $1T
As of June 30, Musk’s shareholding in Tesla came to about 170.5 million shares, and selling 10 per cent would amount to close to $21 billion US based on Friday’s closing, according to Reuters calculations.
Including stock options, Musk owns a 23 per cent stake in Tesla, the world’s most valuable car company whose market value recently exceeded $1 trillion US. He also owns other valuable companies, including SpaceX.
His brother, Kimbal Musk, on Friday sold 88,500 Tesla shares, becoming the latest board member to offload a large number of Tesla stock, which hit record highs.
A week ago, Musk said on Twitter that he would sell $6 billion US in Tesla stock and donate it to the United Nations’ World Food Programme, provided the organization disclosed more information about how it spent its money.
Musk has previously said he would have to exercise a large number of options in the next three months, which would create a big tax bill.
He also said he did not want to borrow against stock to pay taxes because stock value could go down. If he sold some of the stock, that could free up funds for the tax bill.
“[It] seems crazy to borrow that much to pay taxes, so I have to assume he’d need to liquidate a substantial amount of the shares purchased from the option exercise to pay taxes,” said Bryan Springmeyer, a lawyer at San Francisco-based law firm Springmeyer Law.
More Stories
Fair share: the right office solution can take finding the right partner
Ontario faces crew shortages, aircraft issues in fight against wildfires | Globalnews.ca
Refugee attends open house at Downtown Eastside affordable housing facility – BC | Globalnews.ca