WASHINGTON: Tesla Inc Chief Executive Elon Musk has asked his 62.5 million followers on Twitter in a poll if he should sell 10% of his company stock.
The amount of stock in play is valued at about $21 billion, based on his holdings of 170.5 million Tesla shares. The stock, which surged 74% this year to a record on Thursday, closed 0.6% lower at $1,222.09 on Friday.
“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock,” Musk wrote in a tweet referring to a “billionaires’ tax” proposed by Democrats in the US Senate.
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
Musk said he would “abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes.” It received more than 700,000 responses in the hour after Musk posted it, with nearly 56% of respondents approving the proposal to sell the shares.
The world’s richest person had previously said he could face a “massive” tax bill this year as he has to exercise a large number of stock options coming due next year. Analysts say he may have to offload a significant number of shares anyway to pay taxes since a large number of options will expire next year.
The comments from Musk come after the proposal in Congress to tax billionaires’ assets to help pay for Joe Biden’s social and climate-change agenda. Musk is one of the world’s richest people and owner of companies including SpaceX and Neuralink.
On Sunday, he challenged a United Nations official who said just a small percentage of the billionaire’s wealth could help solve world hunger. He wrote that he would sell Tesla stock if the World Food Programme could describe the accounting on his Twitter thread.
