While Elon Musk continues to get lambasted by politicians for being a “billionaire freeloader”, the CEO confirmed on Sunday just how much he will pay in taxes this year.
A few days after saying his 2021 tax bill will be more than any American in history, Musk revealed he will be pay more than $11 billion in taxes this year.
For those wondering, I will pay over $11 billion in taxes this year
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2021
To give you an idea of just how large this tax bill is, it is more than if Musk had been paying taxes on a $1 billion per year salary for the last 10 years, as noted by Rob Maurer of the Tesla Daily podcast.
The large tax bill is the result of Musk selling 10% of his Tesla (TSLA) shares after asking his Twitter followers if they support such a move. Nearly 58% said he should.
As of his most recent sale on December 16, Musk is about two thirds of the way through of selling 10% of his stake in the company.
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