Washington-
Twitter has spoken and if Tesla CEO Elon Musk follows through with his promise to abide by the results, he will sell 10% of his stock in the electric car company, a sale which is reported to be worth more than $25 billion.
Nearly 58% of respondents on Twitter voted yes to the poll Musk tweeted on Saturday: “Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock.”
“I will abide by the results of this poll,” he wrote in the next tweet, “whichever way it goes.”
The billionaire was apparently responding to a Democratic plan, introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., for a billionaires’ tax that would have 700 billionaires, including Musk, pay taxes on unrealized gains from their assets such as stocks.
On Twitter on Saturday, Musk wrote that this would be the only way for him to pay taxes under the current tax system.
“Note, I do not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere,” he wrote. “I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.”
Musk, according to Forbes, is worth $318 billion and owns 190 million Tesla shares valued at just more than $250 billion. More than 3.5 million people voted in the poll.
Wyden denounced the poll on Saturday, saying in a statement that that’s not how tax codes should be determined.
“Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll,” he said. “It’s time
USA Today
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