7:01 am, November 8, 2021
Elon Musk could be about to sell 10 per cent of his shares in Tesla after deciding the issue using a Twitter poll.
The billionaire boss of the electric car company took to social media yesterday to ask users to decide whether he should sell a huge chunk of his stake in the firm.
A whopping 3.5m users voted in the poll, which asked whether Musk should sell 10 per cent of his shares.
Of those who took part, 57.9 per cent said he should sell the shares, which have a value of around £16bn.
Musk put the issue to the public in response to a new ‘billionaires tax’ proposed by US Democrats.
The plan could see Musk face a huge tax bill thanks to his status as one of the world’s richest men.
The Tesla founder and CEO currently owns more $200bn of shares in the $1trn firm.
He is also due to exercise options next year that will boost his worth even further.
However, the new law would leave him with a ‘massive’ tax bill, the BBC reports.
Under the proposals made in the Senate, billionaires could be taxed on ‘unrealised gains’ when the price of their shares goes up.
The new legislation could affect as many as 700 billionaires living in the USA.
Writing on Twitter, Musk said: ‘Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10 per cent of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?’
He later added: ‘I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes’ and ‘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.’
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
Last month, Tesla became the first car company to see its stock market value top $1 trillion after a landmark deal was agreed with Hertz.
However, Musk recently sparked confusion by claiming that no agreement had been signed.
The bombshell announcement caused a slight dip in value, with Musk insisting that Hertz would not be given special treatment.
