Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Inc (TSLA.O), polled his 62.5 million Twitter followers on Saturday to see if he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock.
The world’s wealthiest man earlier stated that he may face a “huge” tax burden this year due to the fact that he must execute a big number of stock options that will mature next year.
“Please note that I do not receive a monetary income or compensation from anyone. Because I only own stock, the only method for me to pay taxes is to sell stock “On Saturday, Musk posted something on Twitter.
“Given the recent focus on unrealized gains as a tool of tax avoidance, I recommend selling 10% of my Tesla stock,” he stated, referring to a Democratic proposal for a “billionaires’ tax.”
Musk has slammed the proposal, which would touch 700 billionaires and impose taxes on long-term capital gains on tradable assets, regardless of whether they are sold.
Musk stated that he will follow the poll’s results regardless of the outcome.
In the seven hours after he released the survey, it drew nearly 2 million responses, with 55 percent of respondents approving the idea to sell the shares. On Sunday, the voting will close around 3 p.m. ET (2000 GMT).
According to Reuters calculations, Musk’s investment in Tesla was around 170.5 million shares as of June 30, and selling 10% of his stock would be worth close to $21 billion based on Friday’s closing price.
