[Epoch Times November 07, 2021](Epoch Times reporter Zhang Ting comprehensive report) American electric car giant Tesla CEO Elon Musk published a copy on Saturday (November 6) The opinion survey asked his 62.5 million followers on Twitter to vote to help him decide whether to sell 10% of his Tesla stock. Musk said he would follow the results of the polls.
“Recent measures treat unrealized gains as a tax avoidance tool, so I propose to sell 10% of my Tesla shares.” Musk wrote on Twitter on Saturday, “I will comply. The results of this poll, no matter what the results are.” Musk said.
After the value of Tesla’s stock soared, Musk was regarded as the richest person in the world. He previously criticized the proposal to tax billionaires, which would affect 700 billionaires and tax their long-term capital gains on tradable assets.
According to Reuters statistics, as of June 30, Musk held approximately 170.5 million Tesla shares. If calculated according to the closing price on Friday (November 5), the value of 10% of Musk’s shares will be close to 21 billion U.S. dollars.
Seven hours after Musk’s opinion poll was released, nearly 2 million responses were received, of which 55% were in favor of selling stocks. The investigation is scheduled to end at around 3 pm Eastern time on Sunday.
If Musk sells these 10% shares, the amount will be equivalent to 80% of Tesla’s average daily trading volume in the past three.
The Democrats’ taxation plan for the wealthy will tax the “unrealized gains” of the publicly tradable assets of billionaires, so regardless of whether the assets are sold or not, they will owe taxes every year because of the increase in value.
The proposed tax aroused strong opposition and was cancelled shortly after it was proposed in late October. Opponents worry that the tax may extend to more taxpayers’ assets, etc.
The poll launched by Musk on Twitter on Saturday drew a response from Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. The Democratic senator from Oregon said in a statement: “Whether the richest person in the world pays any taxes should not depend on the results of a Twitter poll.”
In a statement, Wyden expressed his support for taxation of billionaire income.
The Wall Street Journal said that if Musk is inclined to sell shares, now may be a good time to do so. The current maximum tax rate for long-term capital gains is 23.8%, but Congress has been considering increasing it.
Musk does not charge Tesla’s salary. In a tweet on Saturday, he said, “The only way I personally pay my taxes is to sell the stock.” In the past three months, the stock price has risen about 75%.
Editor in charge: Gao Jing #
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