Elon Musk has turned to the internet for a question. In a Twitter poll posted around 3:00 pm EST, Musk asked if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock.
Showing he was serious and this was not one of his usual jokes, he followed up by noting he would abide by the results of the poll.
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
The Twitter poll comes as Musk has come under some scrutiny due to unrealized gains in his stock portfolio as a potential means of tax avoidance.
A ‘Billionaire Tax’ has recently been proposed in Congress. The tax would focus on billionaires and would help pay for the Biden’s Administration social and climate-change agenda.
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
Musk does not currently take a cash salary or bonuses from any of his companies. Thus, his only way to pay taxes is to sell stocks.
According to reporting by Reuters, Musk’s shareholding is around 170.5 million shares as of June 30. So, selling 10% of his stock would amount to close to $21 billion based on Friday’s market closing.
As of 6 pm this evening, over 1 million Twitter users have voted, with 54.1% supporting the sale and 45.9% not supporting the selling of his stocks.
