In the midst of the debate on the taxation of billionaires, Elon Musk agrees to sell 10% of his shares in Tesla

He will follow the will of his followers. A majority of people following Elon Musk on Twitter spoke out, Sunday, November 7, in favor of a sale of 10% of the shares of the boss of Tesla in the American automaker. The richest man in the world, Elon Musk on Saturday proposed on his account to 62.7 million subscribers to sell 10% of his shares in Tesla if his “Followers” voted in this direction.

“There has been a lot of talk lately about unrealized gains as a means of tax evasion, so I am proposing to sell 10% of my Tesla shares. Do you support this? “, then wrote the billionaire, specifying that he would comply with the result of the vote. More than 3.5 million Twitter users participated in the vote and 57.9% of them approved a sale of this stake. “I was ready to accept one or the other result”Elon Musk said after the vote.

Project to tax the richest

Before the vote, the whimsical boss of the electric vehicle maker appeared to be responding to the wealth tax bill, announced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden and other elected Democrats, including Senator Elizabeth Warren, for fight against tax evasion of large companies and large fortunes. It would target some 700 billionaires who should pay annually a tax on the basis of unrealized capital gains of their stock market portfolios and other assets, including real estate.

Mr. Musk had criticized this proposal at the end of October, writing in a tweet : “They end up exhausting everyone else’s money and come to get yours”.

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According to Bloomberg, Elon Musk owned about 17% of Tesla’s outstanding shares as of June 30, which are currently worth $ 208.37 billion (over 180 billion euros). By selling 10% of its shares, it could therefore theoretically recover a little less than $ 21 billion (18.17 billion euros), at the closing price of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

The entrepreneur was also awarded a large package of stock options and convertible shares as compensation. His fortune has swelled with the recent surge in the title, from around $ 130 in early 2020 to $ 1,222.09 on Friday night.

With his stakes in his other companies, especially rocket builder SpaceX, Elon Musk is theoretically the richest man in the world with a fortune estimated by Bloomberg at $ 338 billion.

“Note that I do not take cash wages or bonuses anywhere”, did he have highlighted on Twitter Saturday. “I only have shares, so the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell shares”, he added.

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