Saturday, November 6th, 2021
Poll on Twitter
Musk has Tesla shares voted
The head of the Tesla group is considering selling ten percent of his shares in the company. Others should decide. When polling on Twitter, followers can answer yes or no for a day. He will stick to the result, assures Musk.
Tesla boss Elon Musk asked his followers on Twitter whether he should sell ten percent of his shares in the electric car maker. “There has been a lot of talk lately about unrealized gains as a means of tax avoidance,” wrote Musk. “So I propose to sell ten percent of my Tesla shares.” The tweet contained a poll that gave “yes” and “no” responses and was scheduled to last 24 hours. “I will stick to the results of this survey no matter how it turns out,” wrote Musk.
Since he does not receive any cash wages or bonuses, selling shares is the only way for him to become taxable. The poll received more than half a million votes within the first hour. Musk has 62.5 million Twitter followers.
According to Refinitiv data on October 25, Musk owned 23 percent of Tesla at the time, which was about $ 230 billion at the time. In the USA, price gains on shares are taxed when the paper is actually sold and the profit has been realized. This is considered to be one reason why US corporations like to buy back their own shares – and thus support the price – instead of paying out the money as dividends. Critics complain that rich citizens can use it to build wealth without having to pay taxes.
In the course of planned tax reforms by President Joe Biden, talks are about to change this. A so-called “billionaire tax” of 23.8 percent on profits from securities, regardless of whether these were realized through a sale or not, is being discussed in Congress. It would affect approximately 700 US taxpayers with assets over $ 1 billion or with $ 100 million in annual income for three consecutive years. The money raised in this way is intended to help finance Biden’s planned social and climate reforms. Musk has criticized the considerations.