Elon Musk asked Twitter about selling 10% of his Tesla stock. Survey says: yes
CBC
Tesla, Inc. CEO Elon Musk should sell about 10 per cent of his company stock, according to 57.9 per cent of people who voted on his Twitter poll asking users of the social media network whether he should offload the stake.
"I was prepared to accept either outcome," Musk said, after the voting ended.
The world's richest person tweeted on Saturday that he would offload 10 per cent of his stock if users approved the proposal. Musk has previously said he would have to exercise a large number of stock options in the next three months, which would create a big tax bill. Selling some of his stock could free up funds to pay the taxes.
As of June 30, Musk's shareholding in Tesla came to about 170.5 million shares, and selling 10 per cent would amount to close to $21 billion US based on Friday's closing, according to Reuters calculations.
The poll garnered more than 3.5 million votes.
"Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock," Musk said on Saturday, adding that he does not take cash salary or bonus "from anywhere," and only has stock.
U.S. Senate Democrats have unveiled a proposal to tax billionaires' stocks and other tradeable assets to help finance President Joe Biden's social spending agenda and fill a loophole that has allowed them to defer capital gains taxes indefinitely.
Musk has criticized the proposal, saying, "Eventually, they run out of other people's money and then they come for you."
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, who chairs the Senate's finance committee and floated the tax proposal, said on Saturday: "Whether or not the world's wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn't depend on the results of a Twitter poll."
He added, "It's time for the Billionaires Income Tax."
Including stock options, Musk owns a 23 per cent stake in Tesla, the world's most valuable car company whose market value recently exceeded $1 trillion US. He also owns other valuable companies, including SpaceX.
His brother, Kimbal Musk, on Friday sold 88,500 Tesla shares, becoming the latest board member to offload a large number of Tesla stock, which hit record highs.
A week ago, Musk said on Twitter that he would sell $6 billion US in Tesla stock and donate it to the United Nations' World Food Programme, provided the organization disclosed more information about how it spent its money.
Gary Black, a portfolio manager at The Future Fund who's bullish on Tesla, tweeted that Musk's potential stock sale would lead to "1-2 days of modest selling pressure" but that there would be solid institutional demand to snap up the shares at a discount.
